The Valentine’s Day Blizzard of 2007--Maggie Shayne

This pic shows Sally, my great Dane, in snow up to her belly. She was not amused. For your reference, Sally is roughly the size of a small pony. And this was early on in the storm. We got 2 ½ feet.

I can hardly complain. (Oh, yeah? Just watch me!)
Okay, I can, but I probably shouldn’t. I mean, after all, people just an hour north of me have had eleven feet of snow in the past week. Now that’s something to complain about. I haven’t had, however. I have had a relatively mild winter, and despite my concerns about global warming, I was freaking enjoying it, okay?

So then Tuesday night (aka Valentine’s Eve) after the lake effect snow to the north finally let up, a classic nor’easter came barreling up the coast and dumped on us. Actually, it’s still dumping. I was kind of oblivious to the entire event unfolding, because I had finished a book over the weekend, mailed it out on Monday and spent the rest of the day in a coma, and spent Tuesday catching up on errands. I made the mistake of going to the grocery store, where I found dozens of panicked locals stocking up on bottled water. As if the impending snow storm is going to strand them in their homes for weeks on end. Why do people do that?

So that was hell. Traffic was awful, and I was starting to get the idea, from listening to the conversations in the grocery store, taking place over carts loaded with gallons upon gallons of water, that a storm was coming. Oookay. I bought extra dog food, the only thing I could think of that I might possibly run out of in the next two days, (two days being the longest imaginable time a single storm is going to make anyone housebound in upstate NY in the year 2007, by the way) and headed home.

It started snowing sometime after 8 pm. I left the outdoor light on so I could watch it come down. It didn’t look like much.


Wednesday morning, it did. It looked like very much. Like about 18 inches worth of much, and I learned another important snow-blower lesson. It would have been wise to drag the contraption from the shed to the front door BEFORE the 18 inches fell. (See, you plug it in to start it, and the only place to do that is just inside the front door.) Moving it through all that snow was brutal. But I got it done. Then I plugged it in. Then Sally the great dane saw the door open and galloped toward it, tripped on the cord, and annihilated the outlet. I kid you not. The plastic outlet cover broke into three pieces, and the actual plug part, the part with the little holes you stick plugs into—snapped to bits, too. That can’t be safe. *Note to self: call an electrician.

At any rate, I got the thing started, and used it to move the snow. It was hard work, but I had my Ipod, and I actually got a kick out of doing it. I was blasting Metallica, and singing at the top of my lungs. “I’m a gonna make you, shake you, take you, I’m a gonna be the one to break you, put the screws to ya, in my way, yeah come on, come on, come on make my day!” (I was singing this in blatant challenge to the snow. I could take it, and I was letting it know I could take it. It turned out to be a bit of a mistake.)

After I used the snow blower, I went for the shovel, and moved the remnants, cleaned off the car and scraped up what fell from it. There was a whole lot to shovel. Afterward, though, the driveway looked great. Right down to the blacktop. I had checked the Doplar radar before going outside, and it had looked to me like the bottom edge of the nor’easter was over us, and I figured since it was moving north and east (hence the name) it would soon be over.

I was wrong. I checked the radar again after the two hour shoveling marathon, and again and again as the day wore on, but the giant blue blob was barely moving. And the snow was still falling.

Skip ahead to four Wednesday afternoon. I decided to clear the driveway again. Another six inches, at least, had fallen. I bundled up and went out, then went back in, shocked. When did it get so cold? I checked the temp—it was five above! I didn’t start the snow-blower this time, just used the shovel, but from the way my back and shoulders are aching now, I wish I had done the opposite. Still, it only took an hour this time.

Anyway, I cleared it again. The snow seemed to let up, despite that there was more to come. My driveway was cleared. The roads were another matter. There are still travel advisories and states of emergency, and some of my friends’ roads were never been plowed at all on Wednesday. Some of them had really exciting plans for their V-day, and those plans fell victim to the snow. Rotten snow.

And I shouldn’t complain about that, either. My poor daughter’s V-day is being put off until at least Friday, because her husband won’t be home from Afghanistan until then—and he’s been gone a year!

And yet, complain I shall. I had the best hair day I’ve had in weeks, and I couldn’t even leave the house so anyone could admire it.

This morning, it's brutal outside. It's below zero, and the wind blew like mad all night. I’ll have to snow-blow and/or shovel again, because although it did finally stop snowing, it blew back in and drifted big time. The high today is supposed to be 5 above. I hope the wind lets up, so it stops drifting right back in. I hope the snow is done for a while. I hear the lake effect machine is supposed to kick back into action once the nor’easter blows on through. I'm going to wait until afternoon to clear it this time, maybe it'll be a bit warmer and less windy by then.

Take heart, though, folks. The groundhog did NOT see his shadow. Spring is coming early this year. Trust me on this. I wouldn’t have been singing mouthy, ‘bring it’ type songs to the snow storm otherwise, now would I? Besides, someone told me Nora Roberts got her start in writing while snow-bound with small children. (And no, she probably wasn't snow-bound for more than two days. With Nora, two days is plenty of time to write a novel.)

It occurs to me that, although I’m complaining, I’m a long ways from the woman who got frustrated and wept the first time she had to clear her own driveway. I’ve got it down to a science now, I can handle it, it’s not all that hard, and I actually get off on it. It gives me a feeling of empowerment to know I can tackle the job, and the aches and pains make me feel strong and let me know I not only cleared the snow, I got a great workout in the process.

So there, snow. Make my day. (Hehe, I'm kidding, snow. You can take today off, really, it's fine.)

Now, we’re halfway through February, which might as well be March, and as we all know, spring is going to arrive in March. So let’s get on with it already. I'm so ready for sunshine and warm temps!