Nemo 2013

I live in Massachusetts, North of Boston, near the coast.  Which means that I was very much a part of  the recent Blizzard 2013, nicknamed 'Nemo', by the Weather Channel.  Why Nemo?  The Weather Channel said it's easier for people to follow a storm, when it has a name.  While that might explain why they gave it a name, it doesn't explain why someone decided Nemo was the name to give this event.  Unlike hurricanes, cyclones and tornados, there doesn't appear to be a list for snowstorms, blizzards, or even miscellaneous notable weather events.  If someone finds out why 'Nemo'...   let me know.

On Friday, NOAA  (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)  released the following satellite picture .

Pretty cool, huh?  As much as this looks like snow, it isn't, of course, but it shows the cloud cover over the entire eastern US, with just the bottom bit of Florida peaking out.




Locally, (ie, looking out of my patio doors ),
this is what it looked like, Friday night










.....  and this is what it looked like, Saturday morning.  By the way, snow was still coming down at this point.

There was no way to avoid the inevitable, of course.  The snow wasn't going to go away by itself...  BUT -- I wanted to play, first.  After all, it had snowed a ton, it was still snowing, we couldn't go anywhere by car due to the statewide driving ban...  I wanted to go out and walk around, and grab some pics, and play in the snow.  So I bundled up, grabbed my camera, headed downstairs..... and discovered that I wasn't going to be going out the door, as the snow had drifted and was as high as the handle.  That's ok...  I had alternatives... so I went into the garage, and opened the door...

you can't read the yardstick, but that's 16 inches of snow... and that's right next to the building.  THIS was going to be FUN!!!!!

So I climbed over this pile, and started traipsing down the driveway...

Yep!   that's showing 24.5 inches of snow!!!  Although, in all fairness, I looked around, and decided that this was perhaps a bit drifted...  but I think it's definitely fair to say we had a solid 20 inches of snow...
and it was still coming down!...  slowly, now, but still coming down!

 I went down the end of the driveway, climbed over the 34 inch wind row that the snowplows had left, to look up the street... everything was so white, you almost couldn't tell what you were looking at.  I looked back up the driveway, so that I could share the excitement with hubby...

                                                                                                                 Sigh.  Clearly, hubby was not here to play.  We had work to do, and playtime would have to wait.  What can I say?  One of us is responsible, the other is responsible-ish.

So, I trudged back up the driveway   

to get my shovel, so that I could help out.

It was still fun, being out there in the snow, and we can't (and don't) complain...  there was almost no snow last year, and there hasn't been much snow this year.  And the timing couldn't have been better.  Nemo brought us home early on Friday, we slept in, on Saturday..  we spent Saturday afternoon clearing out the snow, and tomorrow we'll drive around, taking a look at the effects of the storm.  All in time to be back at work on Monday.

And I'm not complaining about hubby, either.  True, he decided it was more important to deal with the snow in the driveway, than to go out and play...  but on the other hand, as part of our storm preparation he decided he was going to make his famous home-made, start-from-scratch cinnamon rolls, to get us through the storm.
So as I sit here, trying to figure out the hidden meaning
behind calling a blizzard Nemo, drinking my tea --
I'm also eating an incredible, wonderful cinnamon roll.






In case you're wondering, yes, you're right... this is not my typical sort of teapot musing... but I wanted to share some of these photos.  And in case you're interested, we ended up with an additional 3 inches of snow, for a total of 23".  That's a lot of snow.

Wherever you are, I hope you're warm and safe.