Contemporary History 5 – SNOW!
The first snowflake of the season to visit Drumyngham was
noticed finding its way from the sky to Drumyngham’s backyard at noon on
November 15, 2018. Ok, that’s not technically true. There was a little, what we
call a “dusting”, of snow on November 10 but those flakes left almost as soon
as they came. November 10’s snow was just “pretty” for a moment, as seen in this video, and then was
gone.
Our November 15 friend was coming to stay for a while, and
what it didn’t tell anyone when it first arrived was that it had friends, a lot
of them, following along right behind. They planned to stay for a while, too.
In fact, most are still here!
Snow. What a magical thing it is. Little crystals of
water that turn the world from a drab, grey/brown into a wonderland of white.
There is nothing more beautiful than the sparkle of a newly fallen snow
catching the first rays of a rising sun. It often looks like fairy dust has
been sprinkled across the lawn. Maybe it is.
On a very cold morning, when temperatures are in the
teens or lower, a step off the porch and onto that sparkling snow sends a delightful
squeaky-crunch to your ears. It is music like only Mother Nature can make.
I love the snow.
Unless I have to drive on it or shovel it out of the way.
Then I’m not too big on snow, not much at all.
On November 15, I had to shovel it out of the way. I had
an appointment to drive to on November 16 and that flake, along with all its
friends, was blocking the way! It is hard to believe such a small, delicate,
thing as a snowflake could cause so much trouble! At 4:30pm it was still
snowing, and snowing harder, but I decided I needed to get a head-start on that
shoveling if I was getting anywhere on Friday, so out I went. I measured the
depth of the snow before I started. There was approximately seven inches.
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| Drumyngham as seen from above. |
Behind Drumyngham is a paved area approximately 13’ x 43’
that serves as a parking area and entrance to the under-house garage. Connected
to that area is a driveway that is 13’ wide and 106 feet long shaped a bit like
a “J” or, during the holidays, a candy cane. That’s the area, the parking area
and driveway, that needed to be shoveled. Want square footage? Do the math. I,
frankly, don’t like to think about it.
By 6:30pm, I still had about 15 feet to go to get to Butler
Drive. The falling snow had changed to sleet and freezing rain. What was
already on the ground was getting heavier and heavier. The sun was down so the
temps were beginning to go back down, too. I realized I needed to stop. I admit
it, I was getting tired. Soaking wet, and a tad cold, I came in. I knew my
appointment was gone; well, maybe not. I figured I might still be able to
finish in the morning in time to still get on the road.
What I hadn’t counted on, but obviously knew, was the
snow was not done. The falling temps meant what was down already was freezing
and what was coming down, that sleet/freezing rain, was going back to snow –
soon. Already the roads were a mess. Here is the scene I saw when I looked at
Butler Mountain out my bedroom window.
That line of lights are cars and trucks on Interstate 81
at 6:50pm, November 15, 2018. If this was a video instead of a photo, it would
still look pretty much the same. A few of the lights are in the Northbound
lane. Those were moving, slowly. Not so much the Southbound lane. Two emergency
vehicles, their red and blues flashing, could be seen moving, slowly, on the
southbound side, but that’s it. It stayed that way a long time.
The next morning, when I looked out the window, it looked
as if I’d never shoveled at all. As always, however, it was beautiful.
At 5:30am I cancelled my appointment by email message.
Then I got myself together and at 7:30am headed back out once again, shovel in
hand. Once again, I measured 7 inches of snow. Most “official” accumulation
numbers I’ve seen showed the Hazleton area to be at 12 inches but I swear I found
another seven inches had fallen overnight making Drumyngham’s total 14. Well,
what’s a couple inches between friends?
By 10:30, those flakes and me were no longer “friends”, but
I had my drive cleared. I could barely move a muscle but the drive was clear!
Here is the photo to prove it! The smile is forced.
I never got a newspaper Friday morning, but I’m not
holding that against the delivery guy! He probably couldn’t get out either! And
I guess I did OK by canceling my Friday appointment. Here is what the paper
looked like on Saturday morning. It’s a little wrinkled because it got a little
wet. THAT I am blaming on the snowplow driver who, I believe, was trying to
knock down my Newspaper box and mailbox with the stuff he was pushing off the
road with his plow, but that’s a different story. Plowing the roads ain’t easy,
so I guess I won’t hold that against anyone either.
That’s not the direction I needed to go, just opposite,
in fact, but it probably was about par for the course, as they say, area-wide.
It was a storm that caught everyone by surprise. No one
expected the storm to be as big as it was. Who knew my snowflake friend was
such a popular flake!? It was a storm not soon to be forgotten.
Worse than all this, however, is that it means Autumn
2018 is over. What leaves were still in the trees came down under the force of
the snow. As one TV weather reporter put it, “I hope you enjoyed our week of
Autumn!”. It was not a great “Fall” this year. Too much rain coupled with nights
too warm too late into the year allowed the trees to stay green far longer than
usual, and when the leaves changed, they changed quick and fell; some just
turning brown and falling down. It was an Autumn that if you blinked, you
missed it!
But the moist air sure made for some beautiful sunrises!
Here are some pics, but they don’t do the reality justice!
In fact, the sunrises were even beautiful when there were
NO clouds!
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