It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like . . . Halloween?

I can't believe it - a snowstorm in October? Not just a dusting, either - northwestern New Jersey is expected to get anywhere from six to ten inches of snow, and even the urban areas closer to New York City - and the city itself! - could get enough snow to measure with a ruler.  

To add insult to injury, it's going to be heavy wet snow - the kind that can bring down tree limbs, and with many trees in the Northeast still bearing their leaves, limbs that would survive wet snow accumulations in January and February, or even early spring snowfalls, might go down this time.  Terrific - we have a red maple with a branch right over the power lines on the street.  Fortunately, I got one limb down with a long-handled saw, and I pruned some limbs from another tree hanging over the line feeding our house.  But that renegade branch I mentioned is still going to worry me.

And then there's that big oak in our backyard . . ..

Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me in the near future. This storm may not be a hurricane, but given the odd circumstances - for one thing, it's coming out of Tennessee - this is a nor'easter that could be powerful enough to qualify as Irene Mark Two.  My mother and I got through that storm unscathed only two months ago, but we likely won't be lucky twice.

Great, I forgot to buy fresh batteries for my portable radio . . .. 

If there's one good thing that may come out of this storm, it's that Occupy Wall Street now faces its first test of winter weather in New York, and if they can get through it, they're ready to take on any nasty weather.  The Occupy Wall Street crowd is already comparing this to the Valley Forge encampment.

And, as in that famous Bugs Bunny cartoon about American Revolutionary history, they'll shiver in their electric blankets.  I just hope they don't take their misery out on the ice cream man.

:-D