The Blizzard of 2013

Between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon, a historic amount of snow fell in our town, the likes of which hasn't been seen since 1888.  We thankfully didn't lose power (finger crossed, as freezing rain is falling as I type this), but the digging out has been a challenge.

This is the "before" photo, taken around 7:15 on Friday morning.  Snow began falling lightly around 7:30 am.

For a good part of Friday, the snow fell lightly and we wondered if closing the schools and places of business had been a mistake.  Had the weather forecasters blown it?

Around 9pm Friday evening, the storm began to pick up in intensity.

And when we pulled up the blinds on Saturday morning, we knew that the storm was everything we had been promised!  This the "view" from one of our bedroom windows.

View out the front door. 

The sunroom was dark and snow was halfway up the windows and doors. 

Emily was a little worried about going out - and rightfully so - because the snow is almost as tall as she is!

We are smack in the middle of that 30-36 inches and believe that we got almost 40 inches.  Photo courtesy of NBC30.

Lee took the dogs out, but they were pretty much terrified and there was not place for them to go (no pun intended). 

He started the shoveling process because there was no point in me going out until there was room for two people. 

It took us more than 6 man hours to clear just the driveway.  We went back out later for the walks and Lee shoveled a path into the street. 

The "after" photo. 

As most of you know, we live on a corner.  A plow came down our street on Saturday morning, creating one narrow "passable" driving lane.  But really only passable if you have four wheel drive.  The other street has not been plowed yet.  Yup.  It's almost noon on Monday, and it hasn't been plowed.  Based on local news reports, it appears that perhaps only 50% of our city streets are considered "passable" - meaning a single lane.  Regular plows can't do the work, they are using payloaders with snowblowers attached.  The work is crazy hard.  The governor ordered all non-essential state employees to stay home and my office closed it's doors for only the second time in six years.  Much more to come, just wanted to get some photos up.