Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Now This is a Snow Storm








I often make snippy remarks about what I consider the myth of the hardy, can-do New Englander — at least in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut, where schools are closed at the merest hint of snow and people act as if they'd never seen the stuff before.

I blame proximity to New York City for this degenerate attitude.

But this here's a storm! I went outside at about 3 a.m. for a look. It was coming down heavier than horseshit out of Paul Krugman but I figured we were looking at a foot, tops.

Should have taken the over. I cleaned off the car in the photo, which at 7:30 a.m. is well and truly covered.

Yessir, this here's a storm. I got my case of condensed milk (Desert Storm surplus), my water purification tablets, extra batteries, a miniature Bible, and plenty of extra .22 cartridges in case I am forced to go on the possum diet.


(Later)

Last winter those big storms that pummeled the mid-Atlantic seaboard pretty much conked out at the Hudson River. We'd get five inches in NW Connecticut, and Kingston, N.Y., only 40-odd miles away, would be digging out from a couple of feet.

Not this year. My ballpark guess is 20 inches (ruler on top of car).

Today the well-dressed man is wearing LL Bean snow boots, insulated, with a sort of mini-gaiter up top. Fabulous boots, now discontinued. Plus a Bean sweater, flannel shirt and long johns, Orvis moleskins, and my dorky red hunting cap.

2 comments:

Patrick said...

Actually we have it easy compared to most of New England, and certainly western New York state.

P.J. O'Rourke wrote of his town in New Hampshire that there are two seasons — winter, and getting ready for winter.

And I remember marveling at the sight of snow on the ground in July as I toiled up a trail in northern New Mexico in search of a lake with huge cutthroat trout. I finally found it, and was almost killed by mosquitos. The trout were nice, though.

Robert Grundulis said...

I wish we had snow like that here in Dublin, it would give me a good excuse to get out the heavy winter geat.

We did have some very uncharacteristically large snow storms before Christmas. We couldn't handle it.