I’ve heard the storm that is sweeping across the country being called Snowmageddon. A lot of areas not used to either snow fall or freezing rain or sleet are receiving a couple of years’ worth in only a day or so. On TV we’ve seen long lines of people waiting to get into supermarkets to stock up on storm supplies. We’ve seen equally long lines of people waiting in the checkout lines. Some store shelves are empty. There are also long lines at gas stations as people fill the gas tanks on their cars and trucks as well as gas cans for their generators.
It isn’t often we see something like this, but then it isn’t often we see a storm system that affects people from Texas to Maine. The last time I can recall something like this was the Blizzard of 1993 which followed a similar storm track. The biggest difference being that storm and the one we’re seeing now is that temperatures were not below zero just ahead of the storm. It was -6°F here at The Gulch this morning with a wind chill sitting somewhere near -30°F. That certainly didn’t make it feel any less cold when I had to go out to shovel the driveway as we got just under an inch of snow overnight as the frigid air swept into New England. I also went next door to check the neighbor’s home after they called me, asking me to set their thermostat higher for the duration of the frigid temps today and overnight and the 12 to 18 inches of snow predicted to fall starting tomorrow afternoon.
Normally I do my weekly shopping on Saturday or Sunday morning but considering that the morning temperatures on both days this weekend were forecast to be below zero, I took care of it Friday afternoon. I knew the local Walmart where I do my shopping would be busy due to the approaching storm, but it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. I didn’t buy anything different than I would have on my normal weekend shopping trip, so my shopping cart wasn’t nearly as full as many of the others being pushed around by other customers. In fact, it didn’t really take me much longer to complete my shopping as I thought it would.
I did stop at our local gas station to fill the tank in the WP Mom’s car and there wasn’t a line of cars waiting to gas up. Fortunately, it didn’t take long as it was brutally cold due to the wind chill and standing outside the car as I pumped gas was not a pleasant experience.
We are as ready as we can be for the coming snowstorm as we can be at this point. Hopefully the only time I’ll need to step outside tomorrow is when I check on the status of my neighbor’s house to make sure everything is okay and when I need to rearrange things in the garage to move the generator near the garage door in case it is needed. The WP Mom will be attending church online tomorrow morning so she won’t need to brave the subzero temperatures.
