Blizzard o' 2006

Two weekends ago I spent the weekend in Vermont skiing with some friends. I haven't skied in like 6 years and on top of that I'm probably 30 pounds heavier than the last time and grossly out of shape. I was beat. I come back from the weekend trip delayed thanks the recent Noreastern blizzard of 2006. Great. I'm all tired and sore and now I have to spend a few hours shoveling in the cold. It boggles my mind how when people are confronted with others who live in nicer weather they practically brag about the miserable cold and snow. I mean, I've met plenty of people that actually miss the snow (and the whole idea of seasons which I think is over-rated). I noticed that amongst other cold-weather dwellers, it is ok to complain a little about the freezing and the mess and extra work and delays and whatnot. But to anyone else, it's like a rite of passage; it makes them superior somehow. Can't complain too much or they'll think or will call you a pussy or something like that. What's up with that?

I admit the snow is very pretty and the experience is novel (for a while) but certainly is inconvenient to deal with on a day to day basis. And the cold just grates on me. It's more expensive to live in, requires more energy and attention and items to deal with, and slows down everything. Maybe it's a nostalgia thing for people who actually grew up in it, that excitement of getting to miss school due to weather conditions. For me, it should be kept in the mountains where it belongs. A nice thing and place to visit, but not live in.

An additional disadvantage is that I live on a cul-de-sac and there really isn't anywhere to put the snow. Everyone tries best they can to line the house walls with it, make little pathways, and make little castle walls of snowdrift to surround the cars and whatnot. Further, it is technically a private way and isn't plowed regularly by the city works. Occasionally they get to it and do a single plow, especially if someone on the block calls and orders it. One time, a plow shoved a rather large snowdrift into my parking spot. Thoroughly pissed me off. Wasted a Sunday afternoon shoveling it clear, though I'll admit I was quite proud of the little igloo-sans-roof I made for my car. But the street is narrow there's nowhere else to put what accumulates there so tends to ice over and stay that way for a long time.



Lucky for me, the blizzard wasn't as bad as other places on the east, only a 1.5 to 2 feet, and by and large I shouldn't really complain because this winter has been very mild (knock on wood). Actually I am quite pleased with this winter. On all accounts it's been great considering previous years. There's been very little snowfall and accumulation, especially compared to last year, and I don't think I used more than a couple cups of salt the whole of this winter so far. We've had many days where the temperature reached as high as 50 with mostly clear skies. Last year had record breaking snowfall. Here's a pic from a previous blizzard.



One of the things that sometimes gets to me is when it's too cold to snow. I mean, it goes well below freezing and with dry air to where even a minute outside and any exposed portion of my body starts to hurt, especially my hands which shrivel up painfully to where I can't make a fist and my ears just feel like they're going to snap off. I know there are other parts of the country where it's much worse. Those are the times I wonder why people live in such places.

Today I went out to watch a band called "Stars". I took the T there. I was commenting with a buddy how nice it was out (only because there was no wind-chill), but I didn't feel like I needed to wear gloves or a knit cap. It was about 35-38 degrees F. I marvel at the concept that I could call such a temperature "nice". Oh how things have changed.

A warning from beyond

For about 2 hours this morning, I was getting a very strange call at regular intervals, about 15 minutes apart. It was always the same message. Four of them were captured on my mobile's voicemail because I slept through them. It was very odd, and kind of creepy.

It was a robotic synthesized voice which said: "Calling from ### ### ####, Alert Condition Two!" and then the message would repeat.

I must have picked up the phone to hear this about 4 or 5 times.

My initial speculations and thoughts were:

• Some kind of automated marketing thing based on the first few words, though the "Alert Condition Two" didn't jibe with that.
• There was a local or state emergency, quite possibly related to the recent floods in New Hampster. That didn't make sense either, they can't call everyone... though it did make me think that perhaps I should turn on the radio just in case.
• Ah, maybe DearCloseRelative who works in Homeland Security and is sometimes prone to being a mite paranoid about such things put me on an automated warning list for impending very bad things.

When recounting the events to friends and coworkers later (after having a solution to the mystery of course) a couple initial guesses were:

• Oh, you're on that weather warning system... what was it, Nomad?
• Ah man, what the CIA is after you?

Well the solution to the mystery came after about the ninth ring when the owner of the property I rent called asking me A) if I had been getting the calls, and B) to check the basement. Ah, it all made sense. About two years ago, a pipe burst (due to the pipe-chilling cold) in the basement, flooding it and causing a lot of water damage and inconvenience. He had installed sensors and an alert dialer. Lo and behold, he programmed my number in there in addition to his; I do stuff around the property since he lives in Texas. I don't know whether he had told me and I forgotten (or wasn't paying good enough attention) or he didn't fill me in. Either way, I wouldn't have made the connection as it had never happened and I didn't know what to expect... something like "Yo man, your basement's flooded" in a synthetic voice?

Well, for a while there it was kind of suspenseful. Should it have happened a couple weeks from now, like on Halloween, it would have taken a slightly different twist in my head I'm sure.

Oh, and to alleviate frustration for the curious: No, the basement was not flooded. A de-humidifier wasn't draining properly and it overflowed causing a small puddle of water to collect. Oddly, it was not where either of the sensors were. Some sensors, eh?