Another Cold Blast and a Taste of the Past

I was outside earlier shoveling the snow off my deck and taking snow measurements. It was bitterly cold out there. I did not linger! Even now, at noon, with the sun trying to show up, the temperature is hanging around 15 above and with a gusty wind out of the NNE sending wind chill bouncing down to zero and below.

I measured 1.8 in. of new snow this morning. That, on top of the 7.5 I measured yesterday morning, brings us to almost 10 inches of snow - less than we expected, but enough to make driving a bit dicey for the last couple of days - and with the temperature dropping and staying low for the next several days, there won't be any sap running for a while. This is fairly typical March weather, and I'm guessing Mother Nature has decided to speed things up a bit and give us some March in February. That doesn't necessarily mean we will have April weather in March, but the way things have gone so far this winter, I wouldn't bet on it, either way.

There is a lot of chatter going on among Front Porch Forum users about sharing the rail trail with snow machines. People who regularly walk the trail with their dogs or who live very close by the trail complain about the frequency, speed and danger of the machines. I'm not a huge fan of snow machines, but I think we should be able to share the trails, and be courteous and respectful of others. West Shore Road between Route 2 and Brickett's Crossing Road, has a lot of walkers, and I know from personal experience that speeding vehicles can be a real problem. However, most walkers take care to keep their pets under control and walk on the shoulder of the road. Not all motorists slow down, though, and I've been sprayed with mud and water or given a liberal dust bath. Recently I've seen walkers wearing hunter orange vests, and I think that is a super-good idea. That color can be clearly seen, no matter what the light conditions, and I think walkers on the rail trail should wear those vests, too. It could make a difference.

We had a power outage last evening. It only lasted a couple of hours, but in addition to the power being out, Spectrum had an outage, as well. That meant that people who had land lines with Spectrum or have WiFi for their cell service, were completely without communication. I'm fortunate to have a generator, so usually, a power outage is barely noticeable for me. However, last night, when the phone was dead and my cell phone lost WiFi, for a moment I felt really isolated. Cell service is spotty at best, and sometimes I've had to go out onto my deck to get it.The wind was howling and it had begun to snow again, the temperature had dropped, and that didn't seem like a good idea, even in an emergency.  I don't panic in these situations, in fact, my first thought was that I would simply go to bed and read. I was feeling fortunate I had light and heat without lighting lamps and building a fire in the woodstove. Then it occurred to me that if I needed to leave the house for any reason, my garage door opener wouldn't work. I know how to raise it manually, but it is a really heavy door and all I could think was, I hope I don't have to do that! 

Before I had a generator, power outages were an adventure. We always had lamps and candles on hand, and there was a good supply of wood in the garage. If the house began to cool excessively, Fred would build a fire in the wood stove in the living room and I loved those quiet moments sitting on the sofa, watching the fire in the dim light of oil lamps. The lamps really didn't give enough light to read comfortably, so we talked and waited. Our lives slowed dramatically, and I always enjoyed getting a taste of what that was like for our ancestors years ago. 

Last night, I was remembering all of that as I headed for bed to read, and then the phone rang. It was Jamie letting me know the power was back on and Spectrum was also back. For a split second, I was disappointed; but then I settled down to watch the news on CNN and felt mild irritation that some programs set to tape during the early evening, like local news, didn't get recorded.