You live in Vermont. Yep, it is going to snow. A lot…

Friday again, I guess. Christmas just a week away seems impossible on any number of levels. Deliveries haven’t arrived and their status is as precarious as most things in 2020. Tuesday’s nor’easter forecasted for central Vermont a disappointing 3 to 6 inches of snow. I am too 2020 weary to muster anything but a nonplussed reaction to the obvious snow disses my beautiful mountainous northern state was receiving. I saw no reason to rearrange anything to accommodate this “storm.” Not that there is a lot on my schedule these days, but I was certain I would be able to get out for my Thursday scheduled morning run. Yaks might be necessary in the early morning but certainly running would be doable. Hope started to build when the local meteorologists bumped up the snowfall totals from 3 to 6 to 4 to 7 inches on Wednesday morning. Granted not particularly celebratory but hope was alive!!!! Any positive change in our daily existence this year is worth my attention. 

 Family and friends in Massachusetts appeared to be getting the lion’s share of this powerful nor’easter heading up the east coast. I couldn’t help myself, but I had to share some of the old tried and true Yankee farmer snowstorm survival techniques my mother employed when we were growing up in the country. My daughter, her husband and their 3-month-old daughter live in a lovely well-equipped city just outside of Boston, but I was blinded by the snow potential explaining to her what she needed to do to prepare for a possible power outage. After all there is a baby in the house. My granddaughter. The ante went up exponentially. I went for it. Full tilt. Fill your bathtub with water so you will be able to flush the toilets if the power goes out. Bring the house heat temperature up warmer so your “condo” will stay a little warmer for longer. I reminded her that a house cools quickly during a winter storm. Not even considering till after my barrage of messages that they have city utilities and not an artesian well or sceptic system. I just smiled and shook my head at the protective error of my ways.  She has a master’s degree from Harvard and has travelled the world. Yet this forever a mother first went on and on while she lovingly and patiently responded to each worry stone, I threw her way.

 A very dear friend in Connecticut was anticipating a sizable accumulating snow too. Sensing she was not exactly rejoicing about the pending storm she happily offered to switch forecasts with me. We exchanged a few texts, the usual giggles and an abundance of emojis to express our personal bipartisan perspectives on the snow matter. We left it at that as we have been the best of friends for far too long to let our snow differences come between us!

Wanting a big snow for our area as the ski resort just 2.1 miles down the street has already had to postpone their opening date due to lack of the white stuff. Driving by the local ski mountain over the past week or two to pick up my mail and packages at the local post office I was repeatedly disappointed by both experiences.  Snow making was in fits and starts just like my parcel deliveries. 3 to 6 or even the bulked up 4 to 7 is hardly worth taking the risk of picking up milk during a pandemic but I did err on the side of caution and picked up a few other items as well, curbside of course. How could I not be responsible after telling my daughter to fill her bathtub????? Note to self… get out of the studio more…

Having lived in MA for the majority of my life I couldn’t help but think about the television coverage a storm of this magnitude would warrant. We New Englanders pay attention to the word “nor’easter.” Extended television coverage virtually round the clock, all Boston meteorologists on deck while reporters are dodging city snowplows measuring the snowfall on Rte. 128 during the height of the storm. An impressive effort providing extensive coverage leaving all viewers well informed. While texting with my brother in Massachusetts last night sharing our prospective snow fall amounts, we talked about our different weather coverage. I recounted to him what our weather updates in Vermont were like. Programming is never interrupted unless it is truly warranted and even then, it is brief yet direct. Our meteorologists professionally provide the details of our weather always but there is an understood undercurrent that happens in between their sentences. A sentiment of sorts or a not needing to state the obvious. Some things are just understood here. You live in Vermont. Yep, it is going to snow. A lot… 

There is much I cherish about living in the state of Vermont. The art of understatement is just one of the many reasons why I adore living here. Our landscape speaks for itself; we leave it at that. A wonderfully hearty and unflappable people call this state home… 

Our power cut at 4:20 am Thursday morning leaving our remote neighborhood dark while our generator hummed. Thirty-seven inches of snow blanketed over our area yesterday. I live in Vermont. Yep, it snowed. A lot…

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” 
― Robert Burns, Collected Poems of Robert Burns