We did it. We made it through the storm! And.....it wasn't that bad. One of the many great things about living on our street is how protected we are. There's only a few houses, but they all seem to work together to block the wind for our house, especially anything coming from the North East. Also, all of those fantastic, overgrown chestnut trees that I like to complain about in the fall really seem to keep the weather away. Even though the wind was definitely howling and shaking the windows, it would have been a lot worse if we were out in the country! We only lost power a few times, and only for a few hours. TJ kept the wood stove stocked and the heat in our place was phenomenal - it even got to the point where I was too hot. (This, coming from someone whose daily outfit includes mittens and layer of blankets, is pretty impressive). We heated up soup, cuddled on the couch, and when the power came back, we turned off all the lights and pretended it hadn't, because we were feeling quite cozy. *Please take note that we send out huge apologies for our power outage nonchalance to all of our friends who went without power for days....we promise that you can yell at us the next time you come to visit.....
We woke up the next morning feeling like survivors. We laughed, and complimented each other on our storm prowess. What pros! What talent we had! We shovelled out our driveway in 30 minutes, again praising ourselves (and Wayne) for parking the car at the end of the driveway, which managed to create some sort of barricade to prevent snow from forming 4 foot drifts. Ru jumped through snow hills, thoroughly enjoying these magical marshmallow hills that once again allowed her to walk on the roof of the shed (and also now sit in the chestnut tree in our backyard). We came inside and made a lumberjack breakfast and many cups of coffee. We listened to storm cancellations - basically, the island was closed for business. Then we listened to more storm cancellations again the next day. And the next day. I began to wonder just exactly what had happened to the rest of the island while we were busy enjoying our house fortress.
And then there was another storm.
It's cool, I said. We've got this. We can handle storms. 48 hours of freezing rain? 30 more centimeters of snow? No biggie.
Snow day #4
On snow day #5, I cracked. At this point, I'd been confined to my house for 7 days, minus a 2 hour period where I escaped to the library for a work shift. I don't know if it was entirely the fault of the weather, or the weather combined with the lethally strong coffee from Costa Rica my mother had brought back from her travels, but I went nuts. TJ diagnosed me with cabin fever, and sent me outside to shovel and get rid of some energy.
I shovelled the deck.
I shovelled the snow bank.
I shovelled the steps.
I shovelled around the front of the car. We had forgotten to park the car at the end of the driveway this time around, and the snow had taken the opportunity to create a massive drift down the little alley between the car and the house.
I shovelled a bit of the drift.
And then I could shovel no more. I hated winter. I hated snow. I hated wind. I hated that the wind was blowing the wintery snow in my face. So I did what any self-respecting Canadian would do.
I yelled a barbarian yell and threw my shovel into the backyard. "GET IN THE HOUSE!" I yelled at the dog.
I stomped inside, threw my winter gear on the floor and continued to stomp into the living room where TJ was sitting innocently.
"I HATE THIS! I HATE WINTER! I GIVE UP, WINTER HAS WON," I wailed, draping myself across a chair. Ru stared at me with bewildered eyes.
TJ sent me to bed, and went outside to finish the shovelling. He has turned into a very nice Canadian.
Eventually, we made it out of the house. Life slowly began returning to normal. This morning we woke up and the sun was shining. Maybe spring will come after all.
And maybe we will start saving up for a tropical vacation next March.
