2.10.2010

Is it over yet? Maybe?

So the blizzard warning has expired, but we've still got strong winds and a little bit of snow lingering. It's been a messy day, to say the least. We've got a fresh foot or so of snow on top of the nearly 20 inches that was still sitting here from the weekend. Last night also gave us a nice layer of ice mixed in there, so shoveling will be no easy task.

Thursday is looking like a nasty day, the Federal government is closed again and Metro will be on limited service. This is going to take a while to clean up. At this point I'm only vaguely aware of what day it is, or what time it is. Oh, it's 10:45 PM? Whatever, I had breakfast for dinner and am slowly running out of food and sanity. I haven't been to work since last Friday at around 1 PM. I haven't gotten mail since last Friday! I know, right? No mail since last Friday. I'm guessing the rent check I mailed last week is still en route to a PO box in downtown DC. This week in DC has been a combination of The Road and The Day After Tomorrow. It has not been like Kevin Costner's The Postman, because at least in that film the mail got delivered.

Anyhoo, there's all sorts of important stuff to be writing about, like Mayor Fenty's political career, cops arresting a yuppie near Wonderland for throwing snow, that sort of thing. But, like many of you, I've completely checked out. I've watched all of the Homicide: Life on the Streets DVDs I got at the library a week ago, and I'm suffering from extreme cabin fever. I ventured out to take a picture of a fire truck in the snow, and my hand was completely numb after about 3 minutes. I didn't even bother to try to take more photos.

Oh, and what's that? "HEAVY SNOW" projected for Monday by the National Weather Service.

Whaaaa?? Yeah. It's too soon to really know anything but the Hydrometeorlogical Prediction Center is saying we could get it again on Monday. No specifics, other than the fact that an agency with an extremely official and smart-sounding name has informed us that we'll be getting screwed again next week.

Maybe we'll dodge that bullet. In the meantime, stay warm and good luck trying to get anywhere tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. The snow was fun, but its getting old. The cupboards are almost out, the grocers, if open, are out of food. I went to Looking Glass for dinner tonight to get some meat (my house is out) my party got the last of the chicken they had, I got a burger with no fries or pickles, they were out. They said they're on their last kegs, this weekend isn't going to be good for bars and restaurants. I always found it silly to run to the store before a snowstorm and stock up on all these goods, but this time I wish I would have. Well one more box of Mac and Cheese left. If this is a result of global climate trends and this becomes a yearly occurrence we might as well just shut down for the winter, at the rate we're going we won't be out till Spring.

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  2. This is pretty much life in New England or upstate New York. The whole experience made me really appreciate city living... and I reckon thanks to the Internet, the city suffered economically a lot less than it did in 1996 when it was more or less the same deal (no car travel for a week) but nobody could really do anything useful in that time.

    I'm back at the office now, and while I was getting pretty antsy at home, it wasn't that bad. The supermarkets and bodegas all stayed open for the most part, and while Giant had huge lines, the Petworth Safeway was fine on my visits there. Fresh produce was hard to come by but other than that, things were okay in Columbia Heights.

    The restaurants and bars also mostly stayed open and were obviously very popular places to get out of the house.

    All in all, I think we could have done a lot worse by this. If it does turn out to be a more common occurrence, well, we'll have to buy some more snowplows, but this is nothing that isn't already a part of life in many places farther north. And up there, it generally stays below freezing for months at a time so melting isn't generally part of your snow-coping plans.

    It's also encouraging that I haven't heard of any residential roof-collapses, despite this being the most snowfall since the majority of DC's residences were built.

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