Yesterday marked the first significant snowfall of the year. The event once again reinforced the notion that the only reason I think I live in Massachusetts is because A: there aren’t many earthquakes and B: I don’t know any better.
I was eager to assess the impact of a significant snow fall because I have recently taken a new job that now brings me closer to home by 9 miles but unfortunately requires me to head South from Burlington towards Boston down into Medford. The total distance from door to door is exactly 11.6 miles and you would think it would be a relatively short trip. Think again.
I have tried a variety of different routes to try and find the most efficient one. Despite having 2 major highways, Route 128 (95) North to Route 93 South, the best route is through Woburn and Winchester on the main streets. So far the best I have been able to make the 11.6 miles is 23 minutes. That was at 6:45 in the morning and not on the super highways but on the back roads. The back roads are the best choice because despite having 2 “super highways” and despite over 14 billion dollars spent on the big dig, route 93 is still a parking lot in the morning into Boston and in the evening out of Boston.
My worst fair weather experience so far took place last week when it took me 50 minutes. There were no accidents or no other discernible reason for this. The aggravation was made worse by the fact that a guy riding a bicycle was on the same route as I was and he actually beat me to my destination.
Yesterday drove home the possible reason why Massachusetts is losing population. The snow started early in the morning about the time everyone was on their way to work. By noontime it was snowing pretty heavily in the Northwestern suburbs and by 2 o’clock rain turn to snow in the Boston metro area. This soon turned into white out conditions and the out-lying suburbs accumulated about a foot of snow.
What effect did it have on my commute? Well 11.6 miles turned into an epic 3 plus hour journey. My preferred route following the back roads was completely ruled out by one of many cars that were stick in a famous Massachusetts rotary. When I saw this I was fortunate to be able to turn around and head back to another route. As far as I know the other people might still be there.
The number of odd automobile locations were to numerous to mention as they were stuck in every conceivable location including abandoned vehicles right in the middle of an interstate highway. Some were driven completely off the road as people kept going when they couldn’t see and unfortunately went in a direction where no road existed.
Since I am no stranger to these conditions I remained remarkably composed until after picking up the Mrs. from her place of work I arrived home to find that my snowplow guy had not arrived and my driveway was completely covered in the foot of snow plus another foot of windblown drifts. This did not turn out to be a major problem as my two neighbors jumped in with their snow blowers and had me cleaned out in no time.
Tim and Yusef are great neighbors and are always ready to help anyone in the neighborhood. I find it remarkable that a guy like me who has grown up in the frozen tundra of the Northeast gets bailed out by an always winter prepared guy who grew up in Egypt. I always kid him after the heavy snowfall clean up about longing for the sands of Egypt and he always laughs and he tells me he loves it here. Go figure.
When I finished up and got settled in the house I made it a point of calling my snowplow guy who by the way was referred to me because my regular guy had retired from plowing. When I got him on the phone I asked how come my drive way wasn’t plowed?
His reply was that “the weather was too bad, I couldn’t see.” I didn’t bother to ask him in what snowstorm the weather was good; instead I said that I didn’t think I would need him this year.
