Thursday, January 29, 2015

"Snowmageddon" and beyond

It looks like the dry winter is now over. That is - the cold winter but free of snow. Enter the wet winter season as we've got some snow last Tuesday. Apparently, this time it was supposed to be something spectacular hence the "Snowmageddon" name present in media. But we've got "only" 2+ feet of snow so there was no "mageddon", just "snow". Sort of like in 2014. And 2013. And 2012. Or any other year.

It all started slowly on Monday afternoon. The nature was waiting quietly:
In fact, some crazy people were out running barefoot on Minuteman path, hours before the snow.
Ok, to be honest, that's what I first thought when I saw these footprints. Until I passed a guy jogging in Fivefingers. Anyway...
The snow came,
the city froze,
no one drove,
except the plows.
Everything was white,
suiting our needs.
It was the time
to take back the streets!

And that's what happened. With not much car traffic the first hours right after the blizzard were the perfect time to play outside. I almost wished we could keep the driving ban for a little longer. Let's just say that my son had so much fun outside he didn't want to go back home despite his cheeks being well frozen.

The following day the city recovered. It turned out that the full length of Minuteman Bikeway was nicely cleaned up. Riding my bike to work next morning was easy...
until I got to my usual shortcut in Bedford. I had to carry my bike over this section of the trail. I may have to find an alternate route unless I consider bringing a shovel with me to clean up this mess.
But the worst part turned out to be the total lack of parking space at my work building. The only bike rack around was completely buried in snow. With nothing to chain my bike to I had to be creative. Still, I can't keep tying my bike to the railing at the loading dock for the rest of this winter.

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