Some folks became distraught when the forecast suggested a four-letter word starting with S on Saturday. But it snows in Albany in March, even after the vernal equinox. We got maybe three or four inches, c. 8 cm. It wasn’t a big deal because we had received less than two feet all season. OR SO I THOUGHT.
Some folks north of Albany, and especially in Vermont, got hammered with from a foot to close to three feet. THEY can complain!
My initial annoyance was that there was virtually no snow, just rain. Because of an error in construction, our sidewalk puddles greatly. Walking past our house, one needed waders. Did you ever try to shovel rain?
Fortunately, the precipitation turned to snow, and I was able to shovel the heavy mess. I am very good at removing snow; I do not create a shovelwidth-wide path.
That’s the night the lights went out in Albany
More inconvenient was that the power went out shortly after 5 pm. I discovered that my bedroom is the best place to read before dark. Not only does it have a western exposure, but the backyard is sufficiently large.
So I did what I do too infrequently: I finished the last 30 pages of one book and read the first 30 pages of another.
Several years ago, I purchased Eco-I-Lite, a “rechargeable & ready emergency flashlight… for when the power goes out.” For some reason, someone had unplugged it, and the parts—the plug and flashlight—disappeared into two different boxes. Fortunately, I found both sections in late February and plugged them into the wall. It was handy.
Kellogg’s CEO recently opined that poor families should eat cold cereal for dinner. This comment rightly received a lot of pushback, as “cereal prices have risen 28% over the last four years.” That night, I DID have cereal for dinner, but it was the combo of General Mills and Post cereals. My wife chose cold pizza instead. Dinner by candlelight; how romantic.
The power returned at 9:26 p.m. I know this because the DVR started recording the figure skating my wife wanted to watch.
And then
The next day, the sidewalk was akin to an ice rink as the temperature plummeted overnight. I had to use rock salt, or whatever it is that they make for this purpose. Scraping off my wife’s car was onerous. Then she noticed this:
The severed part of the tree, fortunately, fell onto another tree rather than the house behind it, or our car, which was parked under the tree. The temperature was 20F.
After church, we checked out the arboreal destruction in Washington Park, which was extensive. Along State Street, we saw this minor example:
I theorize that the rapid temperature changes caused the water to freeze on the trees, making them vulnerable, especially the evergreens.
Now it was 35F, above freezing. As my wife drove us home, the ice that had adhered to our car roof was dislodged and rushed onto our front windshield. At the next red light, I jumped out of the car and cleared the icebergs.
The other unfortunate outcome of the weather variations was a sudden plethora of potholes in places that were not problems two days earlier. Some of them were pretty large.
So, even a four-inch snowstorm CAN be a PITA.