the first photo above is the view from my front porch across our courtyard. that drift runs down the center of the courtyard like the spine of an eel and is nearly 5 feet tall. we had some serious wind last night, so while the accumulation totals may not be great (not quite 2 feet), the drifts can be much more impressive. the second picture is a view out my window to another five foot drift that covers my fence and rosebushes. quite the storm...
i set out late this morning with some neighbors on a trek to the grocery store and to pick up ian. k lives a mile down the road and the grocery store is another couple blocks away, so i threw on the kid backpack, took the snow shovel in case there were any snow emergencies along the way, and we walked through the drifts...
it's the rare day in the city when the snow is enough to paralyze the movement of traffic - but today is one of those days. the streets were deserted of moving cars - but littered with buried vehicles strewn across the streets, unable to make it to their destinations in the storm. human foot tracks provided an unpacked trail, unleashed dogs frolicked in the pure white drifts, and friendly neighbors were dressed in all sorts of ski and snowshoe gear to traverse the temporary landscape. it was a beautiful walk, and - due to the 30-something extra pounds on my back, a shovel in one hand and some groceries in the other, i arrived home with a healthy sweat to watch rudolph the red-nosed reindeer with my little boy...
unfortunately, the blizzard brought a level of loneliness last night that was very nearly paralyzing. but with ian around the rest of the day, hopefully i can fend off the loneliness and huddle inside and out in the pre-christmas storm. and so long as things clear up in the next couple days so that my brother can get in from nyc and my parents and sister make it down from the mountains, we can look forward to the first white christmas in a while...
