Weathering Mother Nature

AUBURN, Maine — The weather guys and gals were in the ball park this time.

 

This winter storms that packed a 1-2 punch hit New England dead on Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving about  a total of 15 inches of snow in their wake. But these were not epic snowstorms that shut down communities for days and left cars and trucks stranded on interstates across the six-state region.

 

The benchmark for all New Englanders who were around on that tranquil February day is the Blizzard of 1978, where Boston nearly received nearly three feet of snow in 33 hours, closed roads and highways for a week, and killed 76 people in New England. So these storms have got nothing on the '78 Blizzard.

If anything, these were run-of-the-mill storms that added aggravation to frustrated New Englanders who are hoping February makes a quick exit and March is balmy and sunny.

 

But it has been fun to watch TV reporters standing outside and measuring snow with their hands and tell us all what we already knew when we looked outside a window or picked up a shovel on Wednesday —  there was a lot of snow on the ground.

 

The white stuff fell fast, and you know it is a premium storm when the city snowplow driver yells from his window, "It fell too damn fast." 

 

Indeed it did, damn it!  

 

The driver of the plow smiled, and with one swipe of industrial-strength blade, my driveways were sealed with a barrier of heavy snow that resembled the Great Wall of China. There is not much a home owner can do when those mammoth snow plows bury driveways and walkways in one felt swoop. They are only doing their job. Yelling or signaling them with a middle finger to demonstrate your anger when snow is pushed across your driveway only proves you are a moron.

 

The white stuff can't stay in the street forever.

 

There are a pair of small storms on deck for Saturday and next Tuesday. Those storms will give us another couple of days to lament about Old Man Winter and his underhandedness.But I have made my peace with this grumpy old man, who will hang around for another two months before spring shoves him aside and turns white into green.