Hibernation

Last week, I received a call from Matthew’s science teacher. She began telling me about some problems she was having with him. As she’s talking, my eyes are getting wider and wider; my jaw closer and closer to the floor. I simply could not believe what I was hearing. I responded with how sorry I was, and that I would do whatever was necessary to correct his behavior. I explained that it was so incredibly out of character for him to behave that way. We talked about his being home-schooled through 2nd grade, and the reasons why he was finally enrolled in a regular school (even though it was a Charter School).

Then the funniest thing happened. She audibly gasped and then became silent. I could hear papers rustling on her end. Finally, she said, almost sheepishly, “I am so sorry! I think I’ve called the wrong Matt’s parents! Does your son have blonde hair?”. Um, no, he has very dark hair. I now know way too much about this other Matthew’s behavior, and I feel terrible for his parents.

We stayed on the phone for a while longer, discussing how well my Matthew is doing in her class, and that she enjoys his presence. All the while, the kid was sound asleep. He’d gone to bed almost as soon as he got home from school, claiming that he was just exhausted. When I told the teacher that school was wearing him out, she exclaimed, “We’re all worn out these days! I think with all this snow and cold weather, we’ve all gone into hibernation mode!”

I couldn’t agree more! Here in the Mid-Atlantic region, we’ve been walloped with more snow in a month than we’ve seen in the past several years combined! It’s unreal. Just before Xmas, we got 2 feet of the stuff. Then a few times during January, we had 3 – 4 inches each time. Luckily, it warmed up just enough to melt those little snow events, shortly after they happened. On February 3, we were again hit with about 6 inches. A nuisance for sure, but we could deal with it. It was melting, the sun was out. And we were preparing for an even worse storm. Of course, nobody really believed we’d get as much as they were calling for.

Wrong! Very very wrong! On February 5, it started snowing. It didn’t stop until we had 2 more feet dumped on us. Our first blizzard of 2010.

My little slice of the snow pie (click - full size)

I’d been shoveling for days. We have one door to our apartment. It opens directly out onto our porch, which we share with our neighbor. We have 1 inch of clearance between the bottom of the door and the floor. We have to shovel, almost continuously, or we’ll be stranded in our house. I was tired of shoveling, let me tell you! All of the storms we’d gotten were happening in the middle of the night, when Bill is at work, and when everyone else is dead asleep. It was completely up to me to keep shoveling.

But Mother Nature wasn’t done with us yet. Oh no! Less than a week later, we were hit with our second blizzard of 2010!

Another slice of the snow pie.

You see the little purple dot in the central eastern part of the county? Yeah, that’s where we live. That freaky little pocket that I mentioned before, where we get more than what’s predicted. At least now I have proof!

We weren’t even completely shoveled out of the first one! And it certainly hadn’t been warm enough to even attempt to melt anything from the first blizzard. And this one was worse than the first! This one had roads closed by order of the Governor. The area was at a complete and utter stand-still. Schools closed for 3 days. Some schools had early dismissal on Tuesday. The wind was fierce. So bad, that I didn’t dare take my camera out to take any pictures. Actually, I didn’t see many pictures posted by my friends, either, so I guess we all took the same precautions.

This storm took it’s toll on us, physically and emotionally. Bill attempted to go to work (’cause he’s responsible like that), and found that, for the first time in the history of our Walmart, it was closed! With no notification to employees! He drove the 11 miles there, found the doors locked up tight with not a soul around. The parking lot hadn’t been plowed, so when he tried to turn around, he didn’t see a pole, and smashed into it (driver’s side door). Not much damage, thankfully. But one very pissed off Husband, let me tell you! We later found out that they been ordered out of the building earlier in the day because there was too much snow on the roof, and it was unsafe. And not one person thought it important enough to grab a list of employees and phone numbers. No, that would have showed that our managers have common sense!

It was at this point that I damn near blew a gasket. I’d spent the whole night shoveling, trying to keep ahead of it. By around 8a, I was exhausted and in dire need of sleep. I was worried about how much snow we’d get during the day, and if we’d be able to open our screen door. When I woke up, I threw on my coat and opened the inside door. Peering through the window, I saw that the porch had been shoveled! Thinking it was about time our neighbor (a young healthy man in his early 20’s) took on a little of the work, I knocked on his door to thank him. But nope, he wasn’t the one who shoveled! Turns out, it was our landlord! I was happy that our landlord cared enough about us to shovel us out, but seriously pissed that our neighbor had, once again, not lifted a finger to shovel. Not once! He even stood and watched me as I shoveled our shared stairs, never asking if I wanted a break or needed any help. Just stood there waiting for me to finish!

By Friday, people were back out on the roads again. Well, some people. Those whose road had been plowed. We didn’t realize how bad things were until Saturday, when we attempted to go to my father’s house, about 1/2 hour southeast of us. One of the major roads that we usually take still hadn’t seen a plow! Good thing for 4 Wheel Drive, ’cause we would have had some serious problems getting turned around! We did make it to my father’s, eventually. And good thing, too, because he helped us fix a potentially costly problem with our truck. (Yay for dads that know how to fix vehicles!)

It’s now been 2 weeks since our last blizzard. And guess what? Yep, we’re in line for blizzard number 3. It’s currently flurrying outside. But the weather people in 3 different locations (Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Lancaster) can’t seem to agree on how bad this one is going to be. All agree that it’s a “backwards feeding storm”, and that it’s gonna be a bad one, but not anything else. And none have a fucking clue how bad it’s going to be for us here in Lancaster County! So, going by the best case to the worst case scenario, we could be looking at anywhere from 3 inches to 12 inches; very windy to blizzard conditions; starting anywhere from 5am to 3pm. Since it started snowing at 2am, I’m preparing for the worst again.

I’ve had enough! I’m a hot weather person! 70° is too cold for me. I like it at 90° or above!

One of my friends posted a status message on Facebook tonight, wondering who pissed off Mother Nature so much that we’re receiving this bad of a punishment. I’d like to know the answer to that, too! I’m starting to lose my sanity here. This really is too much!