Monday, October 31, 2011

Have: Too Much Snow

So much for a Halloween Weekend! I knew it was going to be a cold Halloween (it always is here in New England) but I was not expecting so much SNOW. 

Most of the parties G and I were invited to were on Saturday, Oct. 29th- which is the only real time adults with real jobs can party since Halloween this year falls on a Monday.

On Friday the weather forecast said we would be getting a light snow (1-2 inches) but that it would clear up in the afternoon. On Friday evening the news said we would be getting 4-6 inches, starting around 4pm, and that while there may be a few power outages, 4-6 inches this time of year wouldn't too much harm.

Boy were they wrong. On Saturday morning there was a light dusting of snow, and around 2pm big chunks of the white stuff was landing on the ground- and sticking. By 8pm we easily had 7 inches of snow. We couldn't get out of our drive way, nor did we really want to risk getting stuck on our way to/from the parties.
This was an hour of snowing.

Instead G worked on his mac until it died while I read. G and I walked into town to see if anything was open. I remember the sky glowing a weird rose color. Did I mention our power went out at 6pm? It flickered back on for a whole 30 minutes before it died again. Our town is set up on a really weird grid system- so sometimes one side of the street has no power, but every third building on the other side does.

Luckily we have a bunch of candles

Luckily the bank had power, so the ATMs were working and we loaded up on cash-monies. We heard one of the local bars was open so we headed that way. Packard's was open for business- sans power- and serving libations. Drinks were pretty limited since some of the machines weren't working (soda, juice) but it proved memorable to have what felt like everyone in town huddled together holding conversations by candle light.



When we got out there was no power- even the buildings that had power on the way there had lost it by the walk home. The next morning we got up and formulated a plan: 1) get out 2) search for food 3) get internet (G needed to work on his robotics stuff). We shoveled out driveway for step up- it was pretty easy since the snow was so wet it stuck together, and headed towards the University. Nothing was open on the way there, and there was down powerlines and trees everywhere.



Thankfully, the University has it's own grid, with its own power generator, and with few trees next to power lines. Voila, power! The University's power/internet was working, and well as its dining. It was the only place up and running for miles.

The only nice thing the weather brought was the pretty juxtaposition of deep fall colors against pristine white snow. I stole this photo from twitter:

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