The Blizzard of '13

Took me a while to get this up here, but that's partly because it just won't stop snowing.  It's snowing now, in fact.  That results in just about every action, from shopping to going to work, becoming just about as exhausting as you can imagine.  One does not think much about blogging when one is trying to convince one's leg muscles to unclench.

Anyway, the February 2013 New England Nor'easter (I won't call it by the name the Weather Channel gave it, not matter how cute it was, because I have no respect for the Weather Channel) turned up about three weeks ago now.  That's hard to believe, seeing at there are still piles of snow out there from what was pushed off the roads and out of parking lots, and that's with all yesterday's rain.

Something that completely shocked me about the whole thing was the government response to the storm -- they ordered people off the roads, threatened them with jailtime even.  Now, it was pretty well know that the cops weren't going to go looking for you, they were busy enough, but it made the point: stay home, it's serious.

Well I did stay home Friday.  Word had gotten around that SEAS was going to be shutting down a 2:00 (by 9:00 Thursday night that'd changed to noon), and since I knew darn well no one was going to be getting anything done before noon anyway, I figured I'd be more productive if I didn't bother to walk in.

That gave me the chance to snap photos hour by hour as things started up.

9:30 Friday morning the lot looked like this:

   

Then at 2:00

At 5:00

And right before I went to bed at 11:00. 

Though you can't see it in the photo, the wind had gone absolutely mad at this point, and power outages were taking hold.  I wasn't expecting to make it to morning with the lights still on, and had prepped.  Being from the Midwest gave me a lot of outage experience, though I maybe leaned a little heavy on the generator and now I miss it.

But the lights didn't go out, and in the morning I woke up to:

That was about 19" of snow, according to my own measurement.  Accuracy was basically out the door, though, as it had drifted so bad that there really weren't any pristine areas.

Watching people walk their dogs in this was hilarious.  I saw a huge black dog, approximately the size of a small horse, just sit down and refuse to budge, even when his owner had slogged through the snow to the relatively clear parking lot and called to him.  I saw a Yorkie leap with abandon into the snow only to decide that maybe that was a bad idea.   And then the little kids were all having just an unfair amount of fun.

I ran out real quick in my jacket and slippers to take measurements and get a couple outside shots -- or so I'd intended, the only door that I could easily get out of was the front door.  The back lot  door looked like this (stuck slightly open, by the by):

And the door by the trash cans like this: 

The peak of that big drift is probably right around the 5' mark.

These folks had the right idea: cross country skis:

Keep in mind that the snow wasn't through at this point.  The final totals for Boston were about 25", though we had nothing on Hamden, CT -- 40".

Sunday morning dawned very bright, so I decided to take the opportunity to get out and get photos before things started to melt and get ugly.  I'm not going to narrate these, they speak pretty well for themselves.  They're in a loop from the apartment, down Concord to Harvard Square and back up through campus and then to Mass Ave.

 

As I mentioned, a good deal of the snow piles are still around; the largest I saw in my rambling was probably about 15' tall (since trucked away).  

You've probably heard in the news about people out this way complaining about how snow removal was handled.  They should all go live in Ohio for a winter.  Seriously; I've seen worse roads (recently!) in Ohio when there was only an inch of snow.  They did an excellent job with what they got thrown at them. 

Walking was a challenge Monday morning,  but not too awful.  The biggest issue was the few corners where no one had shoveled from the walk to the road.  Monday afternoon was a different story.  It rained.  It rained on packed snow.  It was like wading in a swimming pool built on an ice rink.  

But from then it got better.  It's slowly gone away -- when it's not being added to -- and there are signs that, hey, Spring might show up yet.

So that was the blizzard of '13.

My First Hurricane*

So we're waiting to see how badly we get hit here. Earlier in the week it looked like we were going to get plowed--several models had it running right over us--but now it looks like New Jersey is going to get the deep cleaning and we're just going to get the edge.

Unfortunately, Sandy's edge is pretty spectacular.  Earlier I spent some time watching a live stream from a beach in North Carolina, which really didn't get much but the very fridge and it was still pretty impressive.

This cam, located on the Statue of Liberty, could be very interesting tomorrow: http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/statueofliberty/?cam=liberty_pano  The wind is already picking up now, but you can't see much because it's night.

We're seeing school closings (including the Extension School; no class for me tomorrow, which is a shame, because I'd really rather have had the distraction), ferry service is canceled, Amtrak is starting to cut service.  The subways are still planning to be open.  I'm going to be watching that closely because I'm very curious about how they keep the water out of them.  Oh, and we canceled our SEAS tours; I got to help with that, since I'm the keeper of the tour registration.  I guess I'm useful!

I've been through plenty of storms in my life (though thankfully the derecho didn't get the memo that I'd moved, so it missed me), but what intrigues me about Sandy is how much build up there is.  In Ohio you get relatively short notice that you "might" get hit with something on a given day.  Then you get VERY short notice when the dangerous stuff comes through, minutes maybe.  Sandy, on the other hand, gets national coverage and a week of tracking.

Of course, being a weather wonk I've been enjoying perusing all the maps and numbers.  Tomorrow I'll be less happy, but for now it's intriguing.

Got my drinking water, my tub full of water, a full tank of gas, my crank radio, and a stack of protein bars.  I think I'm set.

*OK, so not really.  I experienced Ike.

The New England Aquarium

First I should apologize for the space between updates.  Since the last time I posted I've been home once, finally started to really get dug in at work, animated 830-some frames for Wolf (along with random other odds and ends), worked up my notecards for a sci-fi novel with a possible Nanowrimo start, and started graduate-level classes at the Harvard extension school.  Not a whole lot of time to do much running around.

This weekend I finally did something that I'd been wanting to do for a long time, and that's head to the Aquarium.  The New England Aquarium is a biggie, well-known just about anywhere people watch fish behind glass, and home to a huge collection of salt- and fresh-water life.    The only downside to my trip was that they're in the middle of a renovation, which means I didn't quite get to see everything there was to see.  I plan to return about this time next year -- and possible go on a whale watch some time in the interim.

Anyway, I'm going to let the Aquarium tell its own story.  This is a monster post, so if you internet connection implodes, it's totally not my fault.  Totally.

They have a number of tropical tanks there, made me want to run right out to the pet store and start my own.

I couldn't get close enough to actually reach into the ray touch tank (though I have touched rays before,) but I did manage to squeeze in between a couple kids and take a photo of one that way resting--right up until I tried to take a picture of it.

 And here's a flyby.

 Jellies.  I believe this one's a local sea nettle if I remember correctly.  These are the critters that will happily sting your feet along the Atlantic coast.

 Tiny jellies.  These were exceptionally cool.

 And these were just strange.  They've got a whole room of different jellies plus a couple more types up in the main exhibits.

 I found Nemo. 

 And Gill.

And Dory.

The penguins are usually front and center, but they're basically in a glorified bathtub while they work through the renovation.  They're still crazy cute, though.

 These guys are pretty sweet -- and they're a very very old type of ray, which makes theme even more interesting.

 There's a sea dragon in there somewhere.

 Here, too.

 A starfish people-watching.  Must be incredibly dull to be a starfish.  This one stayed right where it was the whole time I was there -- I went past the tank a couple times.

 There's a fish in there.  I promise.

 If you look at center here you'll see a wading bird.  There were old birds here, including the local endangered plovers, but they were hiding out near the back and I never got a good shot at them.

 You can kind of see them up there in the window.  The sign at left is a replica of those seen all over MA's dune beaches. 

 Sea horses!

Hopefully this isn't too nausea-inducing.  I think he was showing off -- or just trying to dodge the camera.

 And electric eel.  They've got a sensor in the water and play a sound and display a visual representation whenever he zaps.

 Poison dart frogs.  These guys are really striking. 

 Om nom nom.

 Myrtle!  And a buddy.

Out front of the building they have several seals -- and they're really, really active.  

 The Aquarium is right on Boston Harbor  If you look way out there you can see sailboats.  There weren't too many out because it was a grey, miserable cold day.

Big sailing vessels.  I believe these are tour boats.