Blizzard of the year?

Yeah, I believe it.

Now that my fingers have sufficiently thawed out enough to type — though I can’t say the same for the rest of my body… I have to say I’m actually impressed with the weather people for once. There have been way too many times to count that they hype up a HUGE STORM… and after all is said and done — this HUGE STORM only delivered a few inches of snow.

BLIZZARD OF DECEMBER 2009! (Or, as the Twitterverse puts it — SNOMG or snowpocalyse) The snow is still falling, the wind is still gusting, and at its lowest non-plowed/shoveled point seems to be approximately 7-8 inches.

Also, as soon as I got off my bus and managed to cross the street, I fell into a snow drift that was at least 3-4 inches above my knees. Which was more than likely the reason I fell into it. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to walk. Through and into and push forth were my only options. A stroll that normally takes me less than 7-8 minute became nearly half an hour, possibly more, due to the less than desirable weather conditions.

I didn’t have much of an issue with the snow. I spent most of my college years in upstate New York, so I have experience trudging through plenty of snow drifts in freezing temperatures. The wind on the other hand… Snow by itself is pretty. And soft. And generally nonthreatening. Throw snow into hefty wind gusts? (20-35 mph, I think… too lazy to check weather.com right now) It becomes a weapon. A natural weapon of crippling devastation. The thing it was attacking? My face. Which at the time of this writing, still has not thawed out yet. My nose and ears still don’t have much sensation to them, neither do my cheeks/lips. My eyes were spared due to glasses. So I walked backwards.

I still think I did good on the layers though. A nice thick pair of socks (which was probably the only single layer thing I wore today), and my trusty 11 yr old Dr Martens, which have seen me through many a New England and upstate/central New York (that’s by the Finger Lakes, Westchester people…) winter storm. Legwarmers, flannel pajama pants, and jeans. Two tank tops, a long sleeved tee, a short sleeved tee, a hoodie. A hat and 3/4 length down coat. And fingerless gloves to my elbow with hands stuffed into deep fleece lined pockets. And a scarf. Considering that it’s just my face that still prickles from a thin sheet of ice (I didn’t really believe it myself until I looked in the lobby mirror), I think I did pretty well.

And if it’s still snowy/windy/stormy out tomorrow, I think I’ll do it all over again. Why? December 2009 - NYC Hot Chocolate Crawl. Nothing beats the frozen chill of an awesome blizzard like a good steaming mug of quality hot chocolate. I’ll definitely be blogging about that tomorrow (after my fingers thaw out, of course)!

EDIT: 12/20 234p - I didn’t get to go Too wiped from last night’s foray. Need to finish Christmas shopping though.