Winter Storm

Wednesday afternoon at about 4PM, snow began to fall in my central Virginia city. Snow came down hard for a few hours, then turned to sleet, then rain, and by Thursday morning the precipitation had stopped.  Thursday afternoon witnessed the arrival of thunder, followed by heavy sleet, followed by more snow. By this morning the storm was gone and the sun was shining brightly, so I went out and shoveled the front porch, steps, and sidewalk so the sun could more easily melt the snow. I probably didn’t shovel snow for more than ten or fifteen minutes and yet I was sweating when I came back inside. Shoveling snow is hard work. And in this case it turned out to be unnecessary work. The day warmed to almost 60°, and under a bright sun most of the snow melted. Only scattered patches of snow remain in my front yard now.

My friend CyberDave, who lives in Roanoke, told me their official snow total was 19 inches. I used to live in Roanoke, so I know about the snow they get. Here below are a couple of photos I took of my apartment building’s parking lot when I lived in Roanoke. Yes, those are automobiles under those mounds of snow. You can tell by the side mirrors sticking out. Ordinary snow mounds don’t have side mirrors.

On days when I’m in a nostalgic mood and I have thoughts about moving back to the Roanoke Valley, I look at these photos. I think about the amount of effort required to dig out a car and clear a path to the street, and of how heavy a shovelful of snow is, and how each shovelful of snow barely makes a dent in the amount of snow to be removed. And just like that, the thought of moving to Roanoke goes away.