Monday, December 27, 2010

New York - Aftermath of the Day after Christmas Blizzard

Ah, the pleasures of winters up north!
The storm was supposed to go out to sea and miss us but then the storm had other ideas. It swerved inland so we could experience yet another northern winter storm. It started the day after Christmas around noon and lasted through Monday morning. We got 15 inches of snow with winds around 20 mph and gusts to 40 howling throughout the night, it looked like Antarctica out the front door with the snow whipping by. It was 14°F when we went to bed that night.

In the morning I went to let Hoolie out for his morning relief but I couldn't get the back door open, the snow was almost up to the door latch! I tied a line to his collar and let him out the front door but the snow was deeper than his legs were long and he couldn't find a spot. He looked like a rabbit bounding across the yard until he found solace by the garage door. Luckily, the snow blower that Ann's dad bought back in 1973 started right up. The intake is 20 inches high but the snow was higher in the drifts, I often tunneled for a ways but eventually all was cleared in a couple of hours, such fun...

No exit for Hoolie here!
We are still on track to return to Florida and continue our cruise south to Key West starting January 5th. One big surprise awaited us in New York - Matthew (he's 13 now!) will be coming south with us for January and most of February when his family will pick him up in Key West during the school break in February (2/14 - 2/18). Ann will home school him to keep him up to date with his class. It will be a great adventure for all of us, we are looking forward to it!

Time for a break!
This edition of the blog was a special event due to the storm, the regular blog will resume January 5th.