COVID On Ice - The Sequel

I thought New Jersey would be spared.

It's been a tough winter owing to the weather as much as the pandemic, but when forecast projections backed off on widespread icing for the northern part of the state, I felt a little more confident about the next winter storm taking aim at us tomorrow night into Tuesday.  Not so much now.  The northwestern part of New Jersey is under an ice storm warning, and even though the I live in a county that is merely under a winter weather advisory, the extent of the zone under a storm warning isn't too far from my exact location on the map.

So now I'm back to worrying about the power going out for the first time this year and maybe for 65th or 66th time (I lost the exact count long ago) since November 2009.  I may get off easy this time, since the worst ice will be farther north and west, but I don't expect my house to have power for a full twelve-month period (the last time the power went off was for a few moments in August due to Tropical l Storm Isaias).  I haven't had an outage free-year since this rash of outages started.  In fact, the power in my house flickered three times one night last week, despite the absence of inclement weather.   

However, I do expect to get my COVID vaccine by some time this summer, about the same time a hurricane hits this area.

I may be back soon . . ..

COVID Winter

And it's a winter full of discontent.

The Northeast is getting another snowstorm that almost missed us - unnnhhhh!  - which is going to dump about eight inches of the white stuff in my area, and we could get something at least as big as last week's nor'easter later this week.  All of which has happening in a time of a pandemic, where we increasingly have to cover our faces, wash our hands, and stay six feet away from each other if we want to live something as close to a normal life as possible.  Despite the vaccines, we seem to be sinking deeper into a period of misery.

Things have a way of coming out even, and boy, they sure did here.  This time last winter, we had benign weather and the COVID crisis was just something happening in eastern Asia.  Them just before spring, the virus slammed down on us and closed everything.  I've seen a couple of auto parts stores and two movie theaters (more about the latter) close permanently, and several other businesses and establishments have gone under never to come back.  Build back better? Build back what?

This winter only reminds us that April will be a crueler month, more so than last April.  We seem to be in the winter of civilization, what with climate change and everything.  I keep hearing about how life might be like when the pandemic is over, but I'm not convinced that there's going to be any life left on the planet by then. 😞 

Winter: So Far, So Good

It was fairly warm in the American Northeast today, and it's been mild overall this January. Don't tell me there's no climate change! Seattle had a devastating snowstorm earlier this month, the very kind of storm New York is used to seeing in the winter. We in the Greater New York area have been getting mostly rain, the same kind of winter weather you normally see in . . . Seattle. (Alas, New York hasn't adopted Seattle's grunge rock culture, but that's another post.)

The only snow we Tristaters have gotten this winter so far is the snowfall of last Saturday (January 21), which barely amounted to three inches and melted within almost as many days. So far we've had a manageable winter in the Greater New York area, and while I hope it continues to work out that way, I know the weather could turn nasty and cold any time now.

Meanwhile, the forecast around her calls for temperatures in the mid-forties for the coming week. I'll take it.

Winter Break

It's been rather mild these past few days in the American Northeast, and snow that's been on the ground since the turn of the year has finally melted. Trouble is, it's supposed to get down to the low thirties (Fahrenheit) in my neck of the woods, with a couple of inches of new snow in the forecast. But I think there may be light at the end of the wintry tunnel, as temperatures are expected to recover later on.

Punxsutawney Phil, the esteemed Pennsylvania groundhog, didn't see his shadow this past February 2, indicating an early spring. That little rodent might just be right. :-)

But if we are getting an early spring, the past couple of days have only been a sneak preview. For now, the break from winter is over.

Back with more miscellaneous musings later.

And Winter Rolls On . . .

I got another pair of gloves - two pairs, in fact - and I'm going to need them. Another big storm could dump snow on the Northeast by Thursday, and we've even had to buy a bigger, heavier snow shovel. We know what's coming.

In the meantime, winter rolls on. I just finished clearing the snow off our flat garage roof to avoid a collapse, and we're in a desperate search for more rock salt.

And with all of that to consider, I just learned that spring isn't exactly going to work out the way I hoped, either. Last April I tried to register for the five-borough New York City bicycle tour on the first Sunday in May, but they were sold out some time in February. This year I remembered to register in February. I was still too late. It's only the seventh, and they're sold out for this year. Dammit, this 42-mile bike tour - the route of which includes the usually cars-only Verrazano-Narrows Bridge - is on my bucket list.

Oh well, there's . . . always . . . 2012 . . ..

Yeah, right . . ..

Cabin Fever

Okay, it's official: I can't take winter anymore. Remember, I live in the Northeast, which gets snowstorms from the Rockies, Gulf storms from the South, blizzards from the Midwest, Alberta clippers from Canada . . .. Aughh! We're on the receiving end of storms from everywhere!

I keep having to cancel plans because of the constant snowfalls, and the only bright side to that is that I haven't made that many plans these days anyway. My writers' group keeps having to reschedule events not because of the snow but because of changes of hours of operation at the library where we meet . . . but we could get around those changes more easily if it weren't snowing every three days. (At least four days have some kind of winter precipitation in the week ahead, with another big storm expected on Thursday.)

Even worse, I have to get by on winter gear that's wearing and tearing by the day. It wasn't supposed to be like that. My mother bought a pair of Thinsulate gloves for me for Christmas, and she was going to buy new boots online for me as well. But the boots she wanted to get me wouldn't be available until April, and I lost my Thinsulate gloves. Because the geniuses who run retail chains decided that no one buys winter clothing in February because they already have what they need - it never occurs to them that people lose gloves and need to replace them - and because they're too busy putting out Easter candy (Easter falls on April 24!), I can't buy a new pair. So, in addition to relying on wearing boots that I've had since the older George Bush was President, I have to rely on a pair of cheap store-brand gloves that started to wear out the same day bought them.

I bought them last year.

A friend of mine told me she saw an ABC news report saying that the worst of this winter would be over by the middle of February, and that the rest of it would have better weather. I don't think so. And I don;t think we'll have an early spring just because Punxsutawney Phil said so on Groundhog Day. A more benign winter? This winter ain't gonna lighten up; it's gonna tighten up!

And I'll still have those same worn gloves.

Ugh . . . I have to finish clearing the snow off our flat garage roof before the next nor'easter.

Blizzard Blues

Winter has barely begun, and the first snowstorm of the season is a full-fledged blizzard - a classic nor'easter in every sense of the word (and the winds to match). I've already had to shovel the snow in our two-car driveway thrice (three times), and I've only been able to do our front walk once.

Oh yeah, we live on a corner and the driveway is on our side, meaning our front walk goes all the way to the sidewalk. And to think my mother bought our house in the month of December and didn't once contemplate the consequences of snowstorms.

I'm still reeling from the big snowstorms that hit my neck of the woods this past February, the kind of snowstorms people were calling "Snowmageddon." One knocked our power out - the first time our electricity had ever been knocked out by a  snowstorm. But you already know about that.

I hope this Boxing Day blizzard is the worst storm we get this winter. A six-inch snowfall will seem like nothing compared to this.