SnowMyGod ~ Blog 41

This is what it looked like in NH almost a dozen years ago. Man, when
you say it like that ....

I can be a little cocky from time to time. It was one of my very few personal failings.

So it was in the winter of 2001, my first in New England and my first in a snowy climate other than Minnesota, that I spent the better part of four months scoffing at Northern New England. You think this is cold? My car froze to a parking lot once when it hit -25 (the wind chill was -60) in Minnesota. You people know nothing about winter.

In early March of 2001, my first true Nor'easter was coming. My boss called me and told me to stay home from work. They were canceling all the basketball games for that night, so I wouldn't be missing anything.

"But it hasn't even snowed yet," I protested.

My boss, a long-haired New York hippy who named his daughter after John Lennon, was known for playing the cynic about New Englanders. Not this time.

"Schorty, just stay home," he said.

Candy ass. It's March. This can't be that bad.

That turned out to be good advice. At the age of 23 in Newport, N.H., I didn't have any friends in town, but I did have a satellite dish and every movie channel Dish Network offered. I checked the TV schedule, made some evening plans, and cuddled into the couch. It started to snow late in the day, so I couldn't really see much happening. A few times, the satellite dish cut out because the wet March snow was sticking to the satellite dish. Fortunately, the dish was mounted just outside my dining room. A few brushes with a rag and I was back to HBO.

From the third floor, you could tell it had snowed a bit. People were trudging up and down the sidewalks. But it couldn't be that bad. It was March. This was New England.

I went to bed around 1 a.m., then logged into CNN at 10 a.m. to get my morning update. There was an article about the storm on CNN. I clicked on it.

About three-quarters of the way through the story, which was all about the gigantic snow totals, there was a line about my little town of 6,000 people:

"Newport, NH got 38 inches of snow," the article claimed.

Poppycock. This is New England. I know snow. I grew up in Minnesota. Still, better go clean off the car a bit early, just in case it's kinda bad down there.

I'd never seen anything like it. It was sunny out, which meant it hadn't snowed for more than 16 hours. But you couldn't see any of our front stairs. There was just a pile of snow that started above the top step. It was hip deep. I waded out back, to the small parking lot where my car was.

There was no deviation in the snow pack in the back to suggest there were any cars underneath. When your car is a Toyota Corrolla and about 36 inches tall, 38 inches of snow will do a number on it. I'm not even sure how I dug the car out. I had to find it, which was tough. Then it took at least an hour to shovel around it. The guy paid to plow our driveway took a solid hour to drive around with his plow, clearing it off.

Whoa.

Coming home that night, the road was lit by the moon. It was like driving in a bobsled track, with snow piled up on each side of the road to form a thick wall of road salt and ice. A deer was on the road. I slowed down. The deer turned to run, but couldn't get over the ice wall. So, I turned on my emergency blinkers and followed the deer for about a half mile, 'til the deer got to a driveway that had been plowed out. He exited the highway and I continued home.

I'd say I've never seen anything like it, before or since, but that would be a lie. It snowed another 30-something inches a few weeks later, just after all the snow from the first storm had finally melted.

In New England, a Nor'easter is a name for a particular kind of winter storm. The wind swoops off the Atlantic Ocean, blowing back onto land. The wind comes hard from the northeast and, if the storm stalls, it will snow for 36 hours and inches.

I treat Noreasters differently now. Two years ago, in Maine, I brought a ski helmet, goggles and snow shoes to work because a storm was predicted to drop 20 inches of snow. If it did, I was going to be walking home.

There's a Noreaster in the forecast for tonight and I have to commute 52 miles in it to get home from work. I'm bringing my winter jacket, gloves and hat; I'm also bringing a blanket and pillow, in case I decide to sleep in the parking lot at work.

The newspaper's still gotta come out and there's nobody better to do it than me. I guess I still have some work to do on the cocky thing.