Last weekend, while our friends and relatives from miles away in Malaysia were busying themselves in the (usually) sweltering heat of the Chinese Lunar New Year, here in the north-eastern New England state of the US, we were preparing for one of the biggest blizzards for a long time.
All public schools in Massachusetts were officially closed on Friday in anticipation of snowstorm Nemo, and most office workers were already planning to work from home from Friday onwards. I had pulled in my grocery shopping on Friday and did some shopping on Thursday itself.
The snow started mildly enough at about 10:00a.m. and showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. It got heavier and heavier as the day wore on, and by evening, we could see and hear strong gusts of wind blowing all around us. A blanket of snow had formed around our apartment building and the mayor had declared a state of emergency, including a statewide vehicle ban on all motor vehicles on the road as of 4:00p.m. Friday until further notice.
We were basically locked indoors from then on.
We were supposed to be prepared for the worst, including a possible power outage; and while we had the necessary extra blankets, we had forgotten to get any flashlights or kerosene lamps! We only had our flashlight apps from our iPhones!
Thankfully though, there was no power outage in our area, and we were kept snug and warm throughout the blizzard.
On Saturday morning, I woke up to tons of food pictures on Facebook, all from Chinese New Year reunion dinner, but the reality of it was that over the night, a total of about 1.5-2 feet of snow had fallen, as is apparent from the amount of snow on the roof outside our window sill alone!
Snow plows could be seen clearing up the roads outside and most of the cars were at least half buried in the snow. Our patio was converted into a mini snowhill, but the only problem was we could not open the patio door, as the snow was preventing the door from opening outwards (and we didn’t even have a shovel!)
I made breakfast at home: blueberry cream cheese loaf and pancakes; and for lunch, we had leftovers from breakfast. Most of Massachusetts was still on vehicle ban, so we were still homebound for most of the day. We only managed to go out at dinnertime for some quick fast food. 🙂
It has been 3 days since the snowstorm ended, but there’s still a lot of snow everywhere, although that’s slowly melting with the slightly warmer temperature nowadays. Some snowy days are expected this weekend but still, I’m sure most people are all ready for spring now.
Little Miracles
Our Journey of Love
