Wild Winter Weather

We’ve had more than our share of weather this past week.

Last Tuesday, there was a major winter storm predicted. Last Monday evening, they decided to go ahead and cancel school, even though the weather was fine, and the roads were clear at that point. Jonathan’s work told everyone to either prepare to work from home, or be ready to stay the night if they did come in. He decided to work from home.

Tuesday morning, we got up, and things looked fine. I was beginning to wonder if perhaps we’d missed the storm, though it was still early. By the time I was ready to walk the dog, though, the first flakes were beginning to fall. By the time we got back, the snow was falling furiously.

It was difficult to tell how much snow was falling, since the wind kept blowing things into drifts. And it was cold enough out, that the snow remained a fine powder, not clumping at all. It came down steadily all day, and into the night. Our neighbor cleared out the driveway twice with his snow-blower, and we kept our walkway swept, but by the next morning, no one could tell. I think, though, we got about a foot of snow out of that storm. Maybe.

They called off school again Tuesday night, for Wednesday. That made sense, since everyone was trying to dig out. Jonathan again worked from home, the kids swept the walks again, and shoveled the driveway. Since it was no longer snowing, that lasted longer. That afternoon, things had cleared up enough, the road had been plowed even, that I felt secure enough to go out and do some writing. I had a little trouble on some of the roads, but was fine most of the way.

Thursday, they also called off schools. I wasn’t entirely sure why. But Jonathan had a doctor’s appointment that morning, so I took him in to it, so I could drive him to work afterwards. While we were there, the nurses and receptionists kept talking about all the traffic jams, and accidents there were on the roads, and how far everything was backed up. Not just one of the highways, but all of them in the area were really backed up. Hearing that, it suddenly made a lot more sense for the schools not to be in session.

After the doctor’s appointment, we got on the highway to take Jonathan to work. The traffic on the highway wasn’t stopped, but it also stayed between 10-15 mph. So it took about half an hour to do that five minute stretch of road between the doctor’s office, and Jonathan’s work downtown.

Going back home, I decided it’d be better to chance it going over Broadway Bridge, than taking the highway. I could see that Broadway Bridge was backed up, but only the bridge, not back down-town, unlike the highway, which had been backed up as far as we could see it.

I got on the bridge, and saw that there’d been an accident (I don’t know how long before, the police cars were there), right before the overhead supports on the bridge began. It looked like a car on each side of the median had crashed into each other. I don’t know how, when neither one had jumped the median. But after that, the road was entirely clear. On our side. Going  the other way, the traffic was backed up past Briarcliff. But not all the way to Vivian.

Friday, school started two hours late, but otherwise, back to normal.

We had a flurry Sunday afternoon, but we maybe got an inch out of it. Hardly noticeable, on top of the 12 we already had. The roads were still clear by the end of it.

So, Monday, work and school like normal again.