One of my blogger buddies commented on how quickly February 2026 whizzed by. This was not my experience. I thought February was long. Very long.
A good part of it was the cold, especially the first weekend of the month. There were only two days in the first half when it reached freezing. But the real issue for me was that the snow from January 26 never really went away.
The City of Albany had a couple snow emergency days during which alternate-side parking was in effect in order to plow the streets. But the snow removal in many of the places I saw never got to the curbs. Some entities – the city, private contractors? – did some work on the sidewalks, but it was often almost impossible to cross the street.
There’s a bus stop in front of the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library. But on February 3, I couldn’t get to the bus without mountain goating. So I walked to the Armory next door and carefully/nervously walked in the street towards the bus stop.
At some intersections, pedestrian push buttons or “beg buttons” are installed. Every article I read stated that they SHOULD be unnecessary because autos OUGHT to yield to pedestrians in most circumstances, and I agree in theory. Nevertheless, there are places in Albany that they are necessary, such as crossing Henry Johnson Boulevard as it it enters Washington Park. But I’ve seen, there and elsewhere in photos on Facebook, too much snow and ice to allow a person to reach the button.
My salvation
That is, unless one has a cane. I used my cane every day I left the house in February, to push beg buttons, steady myself through ice patches, etc. In front of our house, as I’ve complained for about a decade, our sidewalk puddles greatly because of an error in construction. So there was a small pond. Then it got very cold overnight and the puddle became an ice rink. Unfortunately, early in the morning of March 1, one of our new neighbors slipped and fell before we had a chance to treat the walkway. We felt terrible.
We have a composting area in the back of our backyard. Usually, we collect a containerful and then schlep it to the back 40. But the snow didn’t really melt. Finally, on February 28, I got irritated enough to pour TWO containers of the biodegradable product into a large plastic bag. Then I walked the product to the location, using the cane, of course.
The snow nearest our back fdoor was up to my knees. But when I got to where the in-ground pool used to be – there before we moved in – the snow was about half that height.
February was a busy month: church Gershwin concert, New Edition concert in Boston, two museum visits, being on a panel discussing the movie The Librarians, and talking to the media about my problem mail delivery. I hated having to cajole the government to do its job.
Ah, February 2025 also sucked in ALB.
But now it’s March! Even though it started with some snow, it’s supposed to be 50F/10C by the weekend! Of course, the WORST snowstorms in recorded Albany history were in mid-March, in 1888 (no, I don’t remember it!) and 1993 (I recall it well.)
