Winter Finally Shows Up

New England is certainly demonstrating its ability to completely bewilder anyone trying to understand it. Just a few days ago temps were ranging around 70 and I was outside in shorts and sweating. Granted this was exceedingly rare for the always benevolent Worcester weather as we set records for heat and lack of snow in December.

View Out Back This Morning

Mother Nature decided she’d had enough fun torturing us with illusions of spring and dropped the hammer overnight. She did so with one of her most potent body shots, snow followed by sleet, topped off with freezing rain for the morning commute. This is the first winter storm I’ve been through since moving to Worcester. While I no longer have to driveway from hell to contend with I still live on a fairly steep hill.

Although today is supposedly a regular work day the street outside the house was ominously quiet. None of the city snow plows made it up the hill to clear the streets and I was the first resident to try and drive down the hill as the snow was undisturbed. I commandeered the four wheel drive SUV from my Favorite Panamanian (who wouldn’t dare drive in this mess anyways). I wimped out from taking the direct, and steepest, route off the hill and slipped and slid down to the main road.

Car Coated with Ice After Arriving at Work

The normal five minute commute turned into twenty minutes. I was pleased to see the hardy New Englanders getting out on the roads and using common sense in terms of speed. It seems the freezing rain kept the idiotic flatlanders who always confound during the first winter storm home. By the time I got to work the car was completely encased in ice, fun times.  

Regarding yesterday’s posts I received several messages from the people I mentioned from Saturday night. The Possessed Lady claims she is not but did inquire as to whether the Wonder Pooch returned to normal after she left (he did). The Cantankerous Friend took exception to being labeled a diva almost as much as when I point out his obvious leftist politics. Not surprisingly he was squiring his recently widowed dad around Saturday which precluded his attendance; kind of hard to argue with that logic.

Cali-Daughter and the First Blog Reader Yesterday

For those of you completely turned off by my repeated bouts of luxuriating in being a first time grandfather – stop reading now. I was entranced last night with a FaceTime call with the Cali-Daughter and was treated to the waking up experience of the First Blog Reader. My wife was speaking (yelling) baby talk in my ear as our granddaughter opened her eyes from one of her naps. To see how happy she is upon waking and hearing her mother’s as well as her abuela’s voice was a good indication of how contented a baby she is. I was conquered all over again.

Enjoying a Mobil From her Grandparents

This Happens a Lot, I'm Told

A Real Charmer

And a Patriots Fan!