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Photo by Jason DeVarennes

Sunday, February 10, 2013

No one!

According to Wikipedia, Nemo is a Latin word meaning "no man" or "no one".  So it seems that "no one" banned vehicle traffic from Massachusetts roads for a day (much to the delight of the plow drivers, not to mention local pedestrians and cyclists). "No one" shut down public transportation for almost two days, much to the chagrin of folks trying to get in and out of town without a car, bike or xc-skis. "No one" helped sell every bit of bread and milk and batteries in the region. Then "no one" came to town and left more than 2 feet of snow at our door. Interestingly "no one" seemingly told folks in Long Island about the pending storm, but that's a different story, although maybe those folks should upgrade their smart phones, so they get the message next time.

Finally, and the point of this post, is that "no one" made me use and abuse lots of non-cycling muscles over the weekend.

Before Nemo



Partway through the storm

While "no one" now ranks as the 5th snowiest storm in Boston, it actually didn't earn official blizzard status, according to this seemingly cranky guy at boston.com, having less than 3 hours of 35mph sustained winds.  But the winds that kept us awake overnight certainly were impressive, and they made for some interesting drifts and differences in the depth of snow. Our deck out back didn't look that impressive, but the driveway in the front of the house was a whole different story.

Saturday morning, we planned to head out for a walk by the river before doing any shoveling, but the thigh deep snow in the driveway forced us to do a little just to get out the door!

Those two antennae are the windshield wipers on my car!


Pamela holding a metre stick.

Yes, that is the same metre stick!




Pamela successfully summit-ed the mountain at the end of the driveway. Clearing this will be a chore!
This is what lay beyond the driveway!
And this is a numbered highway.




The Charles River



Snow-covered pedestrian bridge over the Charles...

...and the view from it.

Plows, regrouping for the next round

Fortunately we have a good place to store snow. Our neighbors who put their cars IN the garage aren't so lucky. Not only do they have to clear the entire driveway. They have to find a place to put it.


And given how close together the houses are, that's the real challenge. In years gone by, some of our neighboars have had to have front-end loaders haul away their snow. We just keep piling it up in the lower part of the driveway.

The reward for all that hard work (well, once the driving ban was lifted and the trails had been groomed) was that we could head 5 miles away and enjoy some lovely x-c skiing! Sunday turned sunny and warm and made for a perfect day to be outside. The powdery snow was a bit challenging for skating, so Pamela opted for classical, but John decided to abuse his skating muscles.

At this stage neither of us can move! We've tortured all our non-cycling muscles, and our massage therapist is going to be the beneficiary! Still, a change is as good as a rest! So I am still happy that "no one" came to town.











3 comments:

  1. Adorable photos in your goldilocks coat shoveling snow. BYW, that coat is just not big enough for you:-)! Just saying.
    Jim Duncan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funny, I thought NEMO stood for for "New England Make Over"

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder, who said the word "snow" on a group ride?

    ReplyDelete

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