Blizzard of the Century

After hours of shoveling, we finally reached the street level!

The snow drift was intense.

 Back in February, the weather folks were forecasting “the big one.” They predicted up to 30 inches of snow all along the eastern seaboard, and they weren't far off. We ended up getting nearly 3 feet of snow!

This is the railing on my front porch. Almost 3 feet!

This was my first time having to deal with this much snow on my own without the security of apartment maintenance. As the snow piled up around my house and the wind drifted it in piles outside, I was toasty warm on the inside eating my way through Netflix binges and movie marathons. 

After a few days though, I went stir-crazy and decided to go out and try to shovel. It was nearly impossible! I had to hack my way onto the front porch and hike around the back. Fortunately, I have fantastic neighbors who were incredibly helpful.

Team Us! We got a lot done once we all worked together.

One of the neighbors brought out hot chocolate and cookies for the workers. So nice!

Actually, since our street is so narrow, our entire neighborhood (about 40 of us) all got together to clear our street so the plows could make it through. It was so fun to meet new neighbors and see everyone working so hard. I understand this is rare in this modern age of isolation, but was an absolute necessity if anyone on our street wanted even the most remote chances of getting their cars our out.

Oh, I was ready in my ski pants and boots

Neighbors being neighborly. View from my front porch when I took a water break from shoveling.

Anyway, I had some major concerns, this being my first major snowstorm:

• What if my power went out?
• What if my pipes burst?
• What if my skylight let snow in?
• What if I was trapped in my house for weeks and no one knew how to get to me and I froze to death?

Okay, that last one was just pure paranoia, but everything turned out fine.  The power stayed on, but because I have gas heating, I wouldn’t have to worry about the cold that much. My basement (thanks to two radiators) stayed really warm so I didn’t have to worry about frozen pipes. The skylight in the bathroom held up very well and did its job.

I knew this laundry sink would come in handy.

A good story to tell my grandkids:
"Once, I had to walk through the alley in thigh-high snow just to get to the back door.

Some lessons for next year:

• I’ll remember to bring in the water hose in the front yard (It had gotten so frozen that I couldn’t even unhook it) and use one of those pipe sock things.
• A friend gave me some salt to put down, but I don’t think I used enough. I'll do better with that next time too.
• A major lesson I learned was that when I’m stuck in the house for days at a time, gas and electric bills can really add up. My bill was nearly triple the usual! Next year, I’ll wear even more layers, turn off more lights, and keep the thermostat no higher than 65.

Next year, I'll be ready!

Thanks for reading!

Finally, a pathway to the front door! It took forever.