The Return To Innocence

It's snowing again.
IT'S SNOWING AGAIN.
*grinds teeth*

Now is most definitely the winter of our discontent.

It's snowing again.
IT'S SNOWING AGAIN.
*grinds teeth*

Now is most definitely the winter of our discontent.

Dear Weather:

Okay.
Enough.
Please stop.
Please.
On behalf of all the Mid-Atlantic states, I am begging.
Stop. Stop. Stop.

I don't care if some Northeastern and Midwestern states see five feet of snow and roll their eyes while laughing. I don't care if this is "Not as bad as X city in the North, which gets this twice a month!" Shut up, I don't want to hear from you. Our cities are not equipped to handle this. This is one of the greatest snow storms in history for the DC Metro area and nobody is used to this and everyone is struggling.
I don't care if I was born and bred in New York state and have lived through five-feet blizzards in my childhood.

I want it to stop. I want it to end. I am scared. I am really truly scared of this. There are people without any power, people who are too weak to shovel their walkways, people who are running out of food and supplies. There are animal shelters running out of dog food and cat food. There are people who are evacuating homes due to collapsing roofs. This is a mess and I don't know how it will be fixed beyond the sun coming out and temperatures slowly rising.

This will stop soon. THIS WILL STOP.

Very good things:
A friend with a good four-wheel drive car picked me up, got me to Safeway and back, and helped me carry groceries to my house. I have eggs and bread and milk and crackers and English muffins, butter and cream cheese and waffles and cereal.
According to county news, our local department of transportation will now focus on residential areas and neighborhood streets that have not been plowed. My street is on that list for tomorrow. It will actually make a difference, even though the forecast calls for another ten to twenty inches of snow between Tuesday and Wednesday. The plowing will help keep that snow from accumulating too massively, so cars can actually get in and out. Parking lots and sidewalks are up to homeowners associations and residents, but that's okay. We can manage. We can do it. We will be all right.

Not very good things:
My anxiety levels are still high, and I am subconsciously letting my pain and fatigue rise even higher. My head is pounding. The muscles in my legs are tight and spastic. I feel nauseated and upset and scared. I don't know why but I am fixating on going back out there, going to the local Giant or pet food store, buying more dry cat food even though we have plenty; we have enough to last weeks. I hate it when I fixate on unnecessary worries. A long time ago, a psychologist told me that it was a combination of generalized anxiety, ADD and mild OCD. My mother hadn't confirmed all that, but the therapist had. Mom had known that her baby girl worried too much in a severe way and didn't want to make things worse. Good move.
Snow. That's all I can say. Just... oh gods snow, make it stop. Enough, enough, enough. Did you know that they are also predicting snow for next Monday? It's insane.

Very good things:
A friend with a good four-wheel drive car picked me up, got me to Safeway and back, and helped me carry groceries to my house. I have eggs and bread and milk and crackers and English muffins, butter and cream cheese and waffles and cereal.
According to county news, our local department of transportation will now focus on residential areas and neighborhood streets that have not been plowed. My street is on that list for tomorrow. It will actually make a difference, even though the forecast calls for another ten to twenty inches of snow between Tuesday and Wednesday. The plowing will help keep that snow from accumulating too massively, so cars can actually get in and out. Parking lots and sidewalks are up to homeowners associations and residents, but that's okay. We can manage. We can do it. We will be all right.

Not very good things:
My anxiety levels are still high, and I am subconsciously letting my pain and fatigue rise even higher. My head is pounding. The muscles in my legs are tight and spastic. I feel nauseated and upset and scared. I don't know why but I am fixating on going back out there, going to the local Giant or pet food store, buying more dry cat food even though we have plenty; we have enough to last weeks. I hate it when I fixate on unnecessary worries. A long time ago, a psychologist told me that it was a combination of generalized anxiety, ADD and mild OCD. My mother hadn't confirmed all that, but the therapist had. Mom had known that her baby girl worried too much in a severe way and didn't want to make things worse. Good move.
Snow. That's all I can say. Just... oh gods snow, make it stop. Enough, enough, enough. Did you know that they are also predicting snow for next Monday? It's insane.

Adam left for Pennsylvania an hour ago. His coworker, who has a car with four-wheel drive, came and got him, because nobody could get around our neighborhood without four-wheel drive.

I just came back from the first attempt to find the mailboxes, since there was no way we were getting there yesterday. The parking lot that contains my mailbox is a two-minute walk from my townhouse. It's a labyrinth out there. Can't do it. Not yet. Don't even know if it's worth it; there may just be a couple of thin envelopes in my mailbox.

The snow labyrinth is very pretty, but dangerous, and I am tempted to call myself Sarah for the day.

Walls of snow everywhere. Our tiny community is buried beyond recognition. This is insane. Our homeowners' association is not exactly productive at the best of times. As far as I know, only one plow has come through, and that plow is owned by a member of the HOA. The main street hasn't been plowed at all. People are digging and digging and there is no end in sight. The sun may be shining in full force, but it is well below freezing, and the snow is reflecting all that potential heat back up. No chance of the snow melting today, or tonight, or tomorrow, or I have no idea anymore. This is incomprehensible for Maryland.

Um.

I think the snow just stopped falling.

*cracks knuckles* Well, time to prepare to shovel the walkway again. Good thing I took those analgesic muscle relaxers. *mutter, swear, mutter*

After I finish dancing and whooping.

Oh, look, an unkindness of ravens is perched in our oak tree. Hi, ravens!

Um.

I think the snow just stopped falling.

*cracks knuckles* Well, time to prepare to shovel the walkway again. Good thing I took those analgesic muscle relaxers. *mutter, swear, mutter*

After I finish dancing and whooping.

Oh, look, an unkindness of ravens is perched in our oak tree. Hi, ravens!

2010: The Year We Made Contact.

MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF SNOW.

Adam and I woke up late, had sex, played with the cats, ate oatmeal and split an omelet with Dubliner cheese and garlic butter creamed spinach, and drank Sumatra coffee. Then, we bundled up, grabbed shovels, and went to work.

Three hours later, our walkway is walkable. The car is sort of dug out. We think one of Adam's coworkers may be able to come get him with a giant truck tomorrow morning.

In a few hours, we will go back out and dig again. The snow won't stop. It's three feet and counting. I officially have not seen this much snowfall since I was six years old.

I hate it. I can't even see the fun in it. All I know is that there is snow up to my neck in some places. I am flaring so severely that this dose of Soma is working overtime.

We have electricity. Ours is underground, barely affected. We had a few thirty-second blackouts this morning, but so far we're fine.

This has to stop. Snowpocalypse 2010 has gone from Oh My Gods to Oh Hell No.

Husband has made it home. Cats are being snuggly. I have finished my Rich Chocolate Ovaltine Maple Honey Mocha. The snow is sticking. Shoveling is imminent. I can only hope that my little neighborhood's streets get plowed decently tomorrow, unlike last time.

Anxieties have flared up for no real reason. They really need to stop.

Oh, snow. Snow everywhere.
This is still not as bad as the snow storms my childhood in New York (Brooklyn/Manhattan and The Hamptons). Maryland newscasters are calling this one of the top storms of all time. I am flashing back to the Long Island NY snowstorms of 1985, 1989, 1996, and 2001. Augh.
I remember when I was six during the 1985 storm, playing in the backyard of the apartment complex in Brooklyn, sunk so deep into snow that my father had to lift and carry me several times. Our Siberian husky, Nico, left the most beautiful paw prints as she bounded across all that snow.
I don't miss that snow. I don't want the snow now. I don't like snow. But it is here, and I will go and shovel it.