Yesterday (Thursday) morning, as I drove up the Merritt Parkway through the waaaay too early morning from Queens to Brattleboro (I couldn't leave Weds night because I was at work too late and then needed to pack) (I have to readjust to having to be at work at 8:30am in this new job. Blech.), I saw something that may only be classifiable as a meteorological and/or astronomical wonder. The day had not yet dawned but was obviously wet and foggy; my windshield wipers were on throughout the trip. Then, through a clearing in the trees off to my right, I glimpsed a big red sliver of a moon hanging low in the pre-dawn sky. It was breathtaking, and that was before I realized that it made absolutely no sense that I could see the moon. It was cloudy and raining! Yet it remained visible, this perfect red sliver, for at least the next hour until the sky began to lighten. Amazing. I can't figure it out, but it made me grateful to be awake at that ungodly hour. Cool shit happens before the sun comes up; almost makes me want to get up that early all the time. But not quite.
Today, however, the universe (chuckling to itself and saying "no more fun driving for you," I think) confirmed that it doesn't like it when I move. Or that my major life changes are closely linked to blizzards. Or something.
Two years ago, when I moved from Minneapolis to New York City, one of the biggest snowstorms to hit NYC in a few years followed along on my heels as I drove east. At that time I actually drove from Madison, WI straight through to the Pennsylvania/New Jersey state line before stopping for some sleep, so that I would stay ahead of the snow. In case you're not familiar with I-80 from Chicago to New York, aka this country's most boring stretch of driving (and I've driven the entire north-south length of Indiana, so believe me when I say I don't apply that label lightly), Madison to somewhere in eastern Ohio would be a good long day's drive. That was the original plan, in fact. But then I decided to continue driving the entire length of Pennsylvania instead, and that is a darn long state horizontally.
There have been a couple blizzards, or at least cruddy gross weather systems, since January 2005. But actually, when you think about it, really not all that many. In fact it really hasn't snowed much at all in the past couple years. I guess there was recently a good storm or two in Vermont, but not much prior to that this winter. But then the giant ear of the universe (and I don't mean John Ashcroft, though I'm pretty sure he's still listening too) heard me schedule movers to come to my house this Sunday morning (which is REALLY FREAKING SOON, by the way). Meaning I had to get back from VT to NY today after work, so that I could finish packing and turn around Sunday to drive back with the movers.
So today a weather system started dumping sleet and snow on New York City in the morning and progressed up toward New England, where it is expected to drop one to two FEET of snow in Brattleboro, and more up in the hill towns, before it ends tomorrow night.
People in New England generally try to avoid sacrifices to the weather gods (more intelligently, I might add, than people in, say, the mid-Atlantic, who freak out and actually drive worse when it snows half an inch), and I work for especially nice people who actually encouraged me to leave early today, around 2:00pm. It was just starting to snow then in Brattleboro. I saw three cars in the ditch before crossing the Massachusetts state line (which is NOT far south of Brattleboro). Six-and-a-half hours later, I got back to Queens. (For perspective: yesterday morning - with no traffic and a good amount of caffeine - the drive took three hours. It's generally three to four hours.) That was AWESOME.
By the way, if you drive an SUV (in which case what are you doing knowing me well enough to read my blog? Unless you purchased it to haul your future boat, in which case I grant you a grudging exception. You know who you are.), it does not entitle you to drive 70mph as if you are not in the middle of a blizzard. And please look when you change lanes. My little grey Honda doesn't show up well in snow. That is why you NEARLY KILLED ME in Hartford. Yes, you.
By the way, several people (most notably the VERY AWESOME Minnesotan who happened to be in MA for work and drove up so that he can now be called my first official visitor in Brattleboro, having arrived at my house yesterday about half an hour after I got there for the first real time myself), have suggested that this means I should, in the future, only move in the summer months. Seriously, people. Do you people want to start having blizzards in July? THINK ABOUT IT.
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