Snow Scenes

 

Snow began Friday morning, shifted to rain, and then back to snow but it wasn’t until later in the evening that the snow fell hard and fast.

Not that cold the night of the blizzard. Nemo. They’re naming blizzards now. I would like to resist that, but it does make for if not a better story, a story that is easier to tell.

Trepidation abounds. We live in weather hysteria media. The most immediate news where there’s a constant and universal need to know is what the weather is like. When a weather event like a blizzard is predicted, we have the usual concerns. But in our post Katrina, Irene and Sandy world, we know that the hype and hysteria can be justified. Climate Change is here, server weather events are getting more severe and more unpredictable.

Plus, it happened on a Friday and everybody was like heck lets make a three day weekend out of it after all. More fear than was justifiable was required for leaving work early and closing schools. Also, last winter we hardly had any snow days and nothing resembled what was predicted, or fell. People wanted to enjoy it.

 

 

A beautiful blizzard, the way winter should be. 

 

  

 

 

Walking around a little after 9:30, surprising the number of sidewalks already cleared out. Jersey City is actually getting better at shoveling. Noticeably better. People said they city’s (finally) cracking down, a few even credited Councilman and Mayoral candidate Steve Fullop, which I did not verify. The cleared sidewalks were the rule not the exception, a change from years past. Walking around was less hazardous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow transforms the usual into the unusual. The starkness of the winter suddenly becomes lunar. Water we know drips, but when those icicles form our awareness of water as substance becomes more acute.

 

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A freight train underneath the Turnpike exit. A baseball field covered with snow. Patience keeps hope alive.

 

 

 

 Snow feels magical, invites play. When it freshly falls is different than when it is the day after. There will be slush. There will be inconvenience. Snow will go away. But here it was again, teaching us something we need to know.