Surviving Boston's Stormageddon- Juno, Linus, and Marcus

For those of you from Boston, pictures from the storm are probably becoming commonplace and a horrible reminder of the nightmare that is traveling outside.  But for our faithful blog readers that have only been hearing about the Northeastern storms on the news, we want to share our personal survival story.  It all started back on January 26th, 2015.  There was some snow on the ground already, but a completely bearable amount that didn't take up entire lanes of traffic or double travel times to our work and school.  Since I heard the biggest storm ever was coming the next day, I snapped this photo, to make sure I had a good before photo.  

BEFORE THE SNOWPOCALYPSE

The entire city effectively shut down Jan. 27th, the day of storm Juno. The MBTA public transit system wasn't even running, and even some hospitals closed. It was HISTORICAL. I thought at first we were freaking out a little too much, since last year we had plenty of giant snowstorms, but it was definitely worse than anything we saw last year. We stayed warm inside all day, only leaving to shovel our walk periodically so the snow never got too high to use our snowblower with.  Our heat had been broken for a few days before the news of this storm hit, but we made sure to get it fixed the day before to keep from freezing.  

Nate was working and I did some homework, but it also involved lots of hot chocolate, popcorn, watching the movie, Juno (very appropriate for storm Juno), lots of Criminal Minds, and playing Clue (I actually won a game of Clue in 3 turns, it was amazing!) The total snowfall was over 2 feet. The next day we also both stayed home since travel was still severely delayed and I didn't have class anyway.  I was actually fairly impressed with how clear the roads stayed during and after Juno.  But once Thursday and Friday rolled around, I realized exactly how much the snow was slowing the city down.  My 40-minute commute became 2 hours and a 1-hour commute for Nate became 2.5 hours.

Morning of Juno, after removing enough snow
on the car to get inside it for my snow boots

Backyard Morning of Juno, before I packed
the snow down to be a sledding hill on the stairs

The night of Juno

The next week on Monday we had another giant storm, which brought ANOTHER 16 inches of snow to add to the already giant snow drifts.  This time I still had to go to class and to the doctor.  Nate went to work that day for some reason, although once he arrived he realized he was the only one in his office brave enough to try, and his total commuting that day was 4 hours, so not really worth going in.  After that day there were a few days that actually melted some of the snow it was so warm. 

Before I shoveled us out after Storm Linus.
 Last year I evaded any shoveling, passing the job off to
Nate when it was needed... Not so this year.

 Then we got to this past weekend.  It snowed Saturday through Tuesday pretty much non-stop, totaling 23 MORE inches.  Nate and I both had another 2 days at home. So adding up all of the storms and the additional snow we received outside of the giant storms, we have gotten 71" in 17 days.  That surpasses the previous 40 day snow fall record for the area.  We even got more snow than Anchorage, AK has gotten in that time period.  We've also both stayed home from work and school for a total of 4 days.  Update on March 17, 2015.  After a few more storms, we finally made it to the all time record for snowfall in one year!  "The latest storm in an epic winter edged the total just over the 9-foot mark. Sunday's storm dropped 2.9 inches at Logan International Airport, pushing the seasonal accumulation to 108.6 inches and surpassing the previous record of 107.6 set in 1995-96."

The car on Monday night, after the bulk of Storm Marcus.
We were driving it only 24 hours beforehand, but Sunday morning we also had to clear it.

During the shoveling process

After we finished: 1 hour++ later. This space saver is totally legal to mark our territory since we shoveled the spot out.  Slashing tires on those that remove space savers and park in a spot they didn't shovel is not uncommon.

Tuesday morning, after Marcus

There used to be a pretty big composter
here... now it's that bump in the snow.

It also means that snow plowers are making bank and Boston has spent half of it's annual budget on weather related upkeep already, despite it being the beginning of February.  Tons of roads that were 2-3 lanes have become 1 lane because of the snow, and probably over half of the parking spots that were available before are now part of 15-30 foot snowdrifts.  Luckily we have our spot right in front of our house, and as long as we spend a couple hours clearing it after every storm we can still drive around, of course saving our spot when we leave.  Last night we struggled to shovel just because all the snow just falls right back down off the towering snowbanks we put it on.  Until we found that we could just dump it on to the uncleared sidewalk next to the nearby business. I'm sure they'll be thrilled :)

One of the worst parts of all of this is I was too slow to buy a pair of snow boots this fall, so all the good ones are sold out!  I have to wait until June to get the ones I want.  Until then though, I have been wearing the toe warmers people wear skiing every time I go out.  I had to buy them in bulk. I feel a lot like Randy from The Christmas Story when I go out, unable to move because of all of the snow clothing.  

We did manage to have a little fun with all this snow though, for example, jumping into it off our back porch.

 Just for easy comparing:

This is what our backyard looks like without any snow.  Please note the height of the fence.  It's not super tall, but it's not super short either.

 After Juno

Now: We could walk to both our neighbors over the fence

 And Here is the front:

Without snow:  The easiest marker to see how much snow there is is looking at how far the snow comes in relation to the front windows.

Morning of Juno, you can still see our tree here.

This morning, after Marcus.  And after shoveling/icing the porch.  The tree is gone.

Basically we survived!  And we feel pretty awesome to be in Boston during such a historic winter.  But we are pretty done with giant storms and want them to stop... SO MUCH.  I have developed forearm muscles and back muscles I didn't know existed from shoveling so much. I liked staying home at first, but now I'm just sick of it and have to make up too many classes for it to be fun anymore.  

I also invented (in my mind) a contraption that sucks up the snow and instantly turns it in to steam, which gets rid of the snow, and warms up the air around it (Patent Pending...).  Although I still think there's lots of potential there, I found out my idea is kind of already being used:

The Snow Melter