If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the gigantic snowstorm that rolled through the East Coast this past weekend. And Northern Virginia was caught right in the middle of it.
This whole past week, I kept hearing about the “Snowpocalypse” – a term that they use every time something like this rolls around – that was going to hit us. And it’s not that I completely wrote them off, but I did think that people were blowing it way out of proportion. I mean, Giant was packed with people grabbing water and paper towels and other necessities, in fear of whatever was coming. And I did already talk about the library turning into a battle zone. But still, I thought, “Geez, guys, it’s just snow. What’s the big honking deal?”
Now, I don’t think I live in a particularly snowy part of the US. But I have noticed a trend that when we get snow, we get SNOW. And lots of it. This past weekend, though, was like nothing I had ever seen before.
Usually when it snows, it’ll start, then stop for a bit, then start up again. Not this time. It literally snowed for 36 hours straight with no signs of stopping. My mom and I just stared out the window, watching the snow blow sideways through our neighborhood, thinking the whole time, “Maybe they didn’t overreact this time.” And they most certainly didn’t.
We must’ve gotten somewhere between 18 inches to 2 feet of snow, all in the span of a day and a half. It was craziness, I tells ya. During Saturday, we kept telling ourselves that there was no way we were heading out into that mess. But after seeing our neighbors break out their shovels and snow plows, it dawned on us that maybe we should at least make some headway on our driveway.
Smart idea, considering that Sunday morning we woke up to more snow covering our freshly shoveled path. If we hadn’t gone out there when we did, we’d be faced with about two feet of packed snow to dig out from. Not a fun idea.
Thankfully, we did manage to shovel the driveway, as well as make a path through our front porch for the mailman. We also had an angel help us blow through this huge snowdrift that had collected at the bottom of our house – that angel being our neighbor with his high-powered snow blower who managed to make a decent sized opening for my car at least to get through. Thank God – no way my mom and I could’ve made it through that mass of snow by ourselves. Really need to bake him something to show our appreciation. Because nothing says thank you like baked goods, right?
Still had to widen the opening a bit, as well as chip away at some packed snow that was preventing my car from actually leaving the driveway. But for the most part, we are free! Not that we have anywhere to go, mind you – the library’s been closed for the weekend, as well as today, so no work for me. I’ll have to see about tomorrow. Gonna have make up some hours in the next couple of weeks.
Looking out the window now, all I can see are just massive drifts of snow, piled up against the sidewalks and corners, the bushes (and Christmas lights – whoops) buried beneath heaps and mounds, and my dad’s car, with his side view mirrors being the only thing I can see poking out from the snow. This is definitely going be around for a good long while, at least through February.
I said I wanted to some snow this winter. And trust me when I say, I got it.
Careful what you wish for, folks.
