Post-storm progress

Thanks to everyone who's been checking on us after this blockbuster blizzard (now that's a mouthful!).

It seemed to take the city f-o-r-e-v-e-r to plow our street but they finally got to it! We started shoveling our sidewalk and driveway on Saturday afternoon and only got about half or three-quarters done! Man, it was work!! Then on Sunday afternoon we finally got the rest done.

 

They have a law here that you have to completely shovel your sidewalk 24 hours after the snow stops because people then start walking in the streets and can get run over. Plus, when public school opens back, they want to make sure children have a safe sidewalk.

 

Then there's this other law that says you have to shovel a path from the street to your front door to allow medical or police to rescue you if there's some kind of emergency.

 

We ended up getting well over two feet of snow! It went down as the 5th largest snow storm in history for this area, or at least since the 19th century!! The first layer of snow was kinda light and fluffy but then it changed to a wet (and heavier) snow, so we got a good workout, believe me!

 

We were lucky not to have lost power, but close to a half-million people did. They're still working to get everybody back on line.

 

It was nice to see everybody in the neighborhood come out and help each other. We're back to school and work today (boo!) and believe me, it will be nice to get back into some of our our regular routines. We definitely started getting cabin fever, but, well, we made the best of it (*wink, wink*). 

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Digging out

Just a quick update.

We're still in the midst of this monster storm. Hopefully by late afternoon we'll be able to leave the house to begin shoveling. We had hurricane force winds last night but thankfully we didn't lose power.

It's still snowing here and they're expecting we'll end up with anywhere from 26 to 32 inches before it blows out.

Even though I normally enjoy shoveling, this really looks like it's going to be a major ordeal. I'm starting to get cabin fever but keeping ourselves safe is the number one priority. 

Thanks to everyone for all your positive thoughts. Talk to you later.

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Historic blizzard on the way!

We're definitely taking this one seriously. The snow is starting today and is suppose to go through tomorrow afternoon or even early Sunday morning. At a minimum we're probably going to get 24 inches and some forecasts say it might go as high as 30 inches.

So far this year the biggest snow storm only produced 3.2 inches and the biggest storm last year was only 4.4 inches. And only six times in Boston’s weather history (more than 100 years) has more than 20 inches fallen in one storm. So, yeah, we're definitely taking this one seriously. This is not just a nice "winter wonderland snow," this is in the "blizzard" category. This is serious business.

At lot of times the local forecasters here tend to get a little hysterical in how they report major storms, but even the national sites seem particularly worried about this one. So there seems to be some basis for how excited and anxious they come across when reporting it.

It seems the city is encouraging people to go home from work early since it's suppose to be hitting particularly hard during rush hour. Both of us have already been told to stay home from work and afternoon classes are being cancelled.

They also said there is absolutely no way people should be outside shoveling until probably late Saturday afternoon or early Sunday morning. I went to the store yesterday and stocked up on extra batteries, candles, canned goods, water, the whole nine yards. Later this afternoon we'll start hibernating inside the house and will be in for the duration.

You know me and how I get when it snows. It's like I get thrown back to being a little kid who loves to go outside and play and build a snowman and throw snowballs. Oh, and then there's all that excess energy I have that I get to burn off by shoveling the sidewalk and driveway and then start down the street helping others. It's actually very relaxing to me, believe it or not.

But rest assured, I know danger when I see it and we're taking this storm seriously. Once we settle in later today, I'm not budging until it's done its thing.

Okay. Enough facts and figures. I need to make sure the candles and flashlights and blankets are in places where we can find them. Take care!

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Surviving Sandy



Photo credit: CBS Boston



We made it!

We were lucky to have minimal damage from Hurricane Sandy. We're both safe and sound and our particular neighborhood had very little damage. Mainly some small and medium size tree limbs down, and a little street flooding where the storm drains were blocked by leaves.



I'll be honest about how scared and worried I was during the all day storm. Listening to the sound the wind gusts were making scared me shitless. There are some huge oak trees on our street and we were convinced some of those would come down, but luckily we were spared that.



The other worry was that we would lose electrical power. As of this morning, over 275,000 people in Massachusetts are without power. Somehow we were spared that.

It was dangerous to go out in the storm because of flying debris, including signs and tree limbs, so we hunkered down and just hoped for the best.

Anybody who knows me is aware that I freak out during bad storms. I think I might have had some kind of anxiety or panic attack at the beginning because the weather reporters were starting to get hysterical and I worried a few might start hyperventilating and then faint while they were on camera. That would have pushed me over the edge.

Matty wouldn't let me watch any reports after that, so he would check on the forecast and then explain things in a calm matter.

The other thing that helped me was something I wasn't going to write about on the blog... mainly because it's a little embarrassing, but I'm trying to get over stuff like that, so here goes:

When I was a little kid I had a teddy bear I use to sleep with that always watched out for me when I was asleep. His name is Growly Bear and I use to imagine he would get all growly when I felt anybody or anything was trying to threaten me while I was asleep. During the day when I was awake Growly Bear also watched over me, even though nobody knew he was my protector. I always felt safe inside when he was close to me.

So Growly Bear was on duty all day yesterday and every time I would look at him my anxiety would go down a notch or two. Between Matty taking charge of everything and my Growly Bear, I managed to get through the day without a major breakdown.

Later during the evening hours when the winds started slowing down a little, we went outside to assess matters and also to check on the neighbors. There's an elderly couple a few doors down and they were glad to see us. We got invited in for some cake and coffee and heard all kinds of stories about storms they had been through in the past. It was interesting to me that hearing those stories was actually calming. Probably because it helped me put things into perspective, I guess.

Anyway, we're back at school and work today. I am so ready for everything to get back to normal.

Matty and I keep thinking about all the people who died in this storm and those who are still struggling with all the damage. Out thoughts go out to everyone.

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The Storm

Hi everybody. You may have heard by now there's a major storm hitting the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. 

Hurricane Sandy is slamming into New Jersey but since it's one of those storms that's combining with several other weather systems, it's being called a Perfect Storm, or for those who like to be overly dramatic, it's nickname is Frankenstorm.

The sweep of the storm is pretty wide so we're getting anywhere from 50 - 80 mph winds over a sustained period of just about all day today. Probably going to have downed trees and all the damage that goes with that including power outages.

School and work has been canceled so we're around to take care of any damage we get in addition to helping people in our neighborhood.

Not sure how all this will impact our Halloween plans, but that's of course secondary right now.

For those of you who may be getting the fury of this storm worse than us, please be safe and know you're in our thoughts.

Once this thing gets finished with it's damage and destruction, we'll see you on the other side. 

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The Hurricane

Well, looks like Hurricane Irene is headed up the East Coast of the U.S. I hope everybody in her way takes precautions and stays safe.

They're saying, for now, that by the time it reaches New England (on Sunday), it might be downgraded to a Category 1, which is the less severe version.

Anyway we're expected to get strong winds and lots of rain. They say there might be some power outages and trees down, etc., so we might not be posting for a few days. Regardless of how severe it is, I'm sure there's going to be lots of work in cleaning everything up.

We'll be back when we can. Take care.

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