My Reintroduction to New England Winters

When people think of a white christmas, it come with all these romantic notions of a house-bound family sitting around the fire drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows.  That's my image too.  My reality was something altogether different.

I actually did have my family visiting as the impending xmas storm approached.  However, rather than acquiescing and settling for a visit that could be a whole 1/2 day longer than planned, my family hightailed it out of here at 8:30 am the morning after Christmas.  Not that I entirely blame them.  So instead of hanging with the family playing Wii, I was alone, trying to cajole my dog to go potty outside in a blizzard.

I have lived in condos in the middle of the city for so long that I can't remember the last time I shoveled snow.  But on Monday morning, with only 3 hours to go before the blizzard warning was to be lifted, I was digging my way through a foot of snow to my car, and then digging out the car itself.  I was headed to one of the only places that stays open and expects people to make their appointments during a blizzard.  (more on that some other time)

But the real shock after last year's winter experiences in DC, was that the highways were completely clear!  I don't mean drivable; I mean driving on wet, and sometimes even dry, pavement.  Yay for places who know what to do with snow!  The main roads were so clear that in the afternoon I started getting emails from the yoga studio saying they were ready to re-open but were just waiting on the city to lift the snow emergency so people could park on the street.  Amazing.

Rather than yoga, I was getting my exercise from shoveling and more shoveling.  I found myself on the town web site when I stumbled across a link to the 2010 Snow Shoveler List.  The city had put together a list of people by neighborhood, of those looking to make some extra cash shoveling out their neighbors.  Including teenagers.  I didn't think teenagers did hard labor for a buck anymore.  Honestly it was so great to see.  A couple hours later I had 2 14 y.o. girls coming up the street carrying their snow shovels.  My middle-aged back thanks them.