Blizzard of 2010

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I still remember the Blizzard of '98 quite well. I was a freshman in high school, well technically I was - I was at a K-9 school. My parents were away skiing, and my sisters and I were home with an apprentice from the school babysitting us. That storm was a real blizzard. Most of the doors to the house were snowed shut. I remember taking our yellow lab outside to "shovel." Ha. The snow nearly engulfed her -- all 3 feet or so. We live on a state road in CT, so the responsibility for plowing the road falls into the state's hands -- not our town's. The first day of the storm, you couldn't see where the road was. I remember watching a Land Cruiser driving down the snowcovered road (it was packed out a bit) with three snow tubes full of kids trailing behind. Now THAT is what I call sledding!

So, now to today's "blizzard." I know the snow started around 2am. Yup. I was up, listening to the plows roaring down the pretty dry road, metal plow to pavement. They were using their new fancy "ice detecting" detection system, I guess. I just wish they had silencers. By the time I actually got out of bed at 9:30, three beautiful inches had blanketed the ground. And the next couple of hours, it was snowing like gangbusters. I couldn't see the field and rolling hills behind us. Looking out the window, you saw snow flying by horizontally. Not to mention the howling wind (my family lives in a converted barn and is at the crest of a hill, so the wind from Long Island Sound will whip across inland CT and slap the house. I ventured out midday (the cat needed food!) and was surprised at how neglected our state road was. I went across the state line to NY state, and their roads, albeit snowy, were nicely sanded and very manageable. Go figure.

Now it's late afternoon -- and I'm sitting here wondering why this was called a blizzard. It's still snowing, yes, and still windy. But it's tapering off to a very fine snow...not the sheer volume of larger flakes I saw this morning. It's clearer, too, as you can see all the way to the next ridge over. Ha. Not for long (before, top. 10 minutes later, bottom. Literally as I'm writing this!)

I could venture out and re-shovel the sidewalk again, but I'm feeling a little lazy. Plus, it's still snowing. It can wait. Instead, I'm thinking of making that batch of granola I've been meaning to make for the last two weeks. Multigrain granola (not just oats) with an array of nuts (brazil, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews), some coconut, and a couple of handfuls of dried blueberries, whole dried cranberries, and dried cherries. Then, maybe some hot chocolate -- with a little bit of that salted caramel I have on hand from my New Year's feast (cocoa recipe tk). And a fire in the fireplace. I better go get some wood now. Mmm.