Blizzard, Part Two!

Well son of a gun.

It turns out it WAS news after all. It was news because our state and municipalities totally dropped the ball on the snow removal, resulting in people at the Shore still trapped in their homes, more than four days after the storm ended.

The blizzard was effectively over by Monday morning. By Wednesday night, our street had still not seen a plow. There was a six foot drift covering my van in the driveway and a solid three foot bank of snow from one end of the street to the other.

As the days slid into Wednesday with no escape in sight, every few hours my daughter, who is eight and a half months pregnant, would clutch her chest and cry “We’re going to run out of food!! I know it!!”. Then we would both laugh. But the laughter was getting pretty thin after 60 hours, down to about a half a cup of milk, no butter and one frozen chicken. I had to miss my MS treatment because I couldn’t get to the oncologist’s office. I started making feeble jokes about being Donner, party of two. But it actually was getting worrisome.

Her Significant Other was on snow duty at the firehouse in Ocean Grove, a tiny little community here at the Shore. He was completely trapped there for over 72 hours. Nothing with wheels could move at all in the snow and the firemen spent most of their time digging out other emergency vehicles that were stuck. One rescue call had to be done with the patient being pulled through the snow in a sled-like basket. As of Thursday, most of that town had not been touched by a plow.

Local politicians were trying to deflect blame (there was too much snow to remove) or pass the buck (the state didn’t do its job properly), but the bottom line is the entire situation was an unacceptable disaster.

Here is one article in the local paper: http://www.app.com/article/20101230/NEWS/101230061/Neptune-digs-through-the-night

So I filled the time doing what I had done on Sunday:

I read.



I baked cinnamon bread.

I finished a baby quilt top I am making for a friend, but couldn't complete the whole thing because I am all out of batting.

I made… a patchwork thingie. I had in mind a patchwork prayer shawl, as a change from the knitted ones I make. While I was testing it against my shoulders for size, The Critic appeared in the doorway and said “Why are you wearing a table runner?”. So presto, it was a table runner.

We are finally shoveled and plowed out. I may venture to, where else but the fabric store? But the roads and streets are still dicey, so I will play it by ear. One broken shoulder is more than enough, thank you very much. If I don’t get more fabric, I am sure I will find something to do over the holiday weekend.

I wish all of you a wonderfully peaceful, joy filled and healthy New Year!!

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