Calm after the storm

The big snow is over at last. We probably got close to two feet of snow during the entire thing. I've been snowed in for several days now and it looks like today, I'll finally get dug out. I've been having a bad case of cabin fever for the past few days as I've been cooped up too long in this tiny apartment with dwindling provisions. It's taken the city quite a while to getting around to plowing this street because of how many cars have been parked along it throughout the storm, despite the fact that the city is supposed to enforce a parking ban whenever snow exceeds two inches of depth, but I often feel as if our street is ignored by city services because of its heavy student residency. We don't get leaf pick up in the fall and we're often one of the last streets cleared after a snowstorm, and only because I complain about it. It gets wearisome feeling as if our street is skipped when it comes to vital city services, probably because of a perception of students not paying city taxes or something. Well, I have news for them - many of them work at jobs in and around the city and do contribute their fair share of taxes, so we ought to receive the same services as the rest of the city! But it's going to take some work on various people's parts to bridge the town-gown gap that has existed for so long now, but that's an issue for another blog.

GET OUT YOUR RAY-BANS!

The sun is out today with a mixture of clouds, and with all that newfallen snow, it's awfully bright out there today. I remember last year when we had a big snowstorm on Valentine's Day, the sky was crystal clear when it all passed, so I wonder if all that weather clears the atmosphere and gives us crystalline skies the next day. It always seems that way after any bad storm passes, whether a winter storm or a spring or summer storm. The next day is always beautiful. If anything, I notice that the bright sun has already begun to melt some of the snow, making removal a lot faster and easier. By week's end, the temperatures are supposed to soar into the 50's, meaning that all this melting snow could cause some serious flooding. At least all the recent precipitation we've gotten lately has brought the declining levels of the Great Lakes up again, which is always a good thing. I hope that this is the last big snow we have for the season, but that would be a fool's optimism, to say the least. I'm sure we'll get at least one more good whallop before season's end, but maybe we'll get lucky and this will be the one big storm of the season. At any rate, I've had about enough of snow for the season. I'm more than ready for spring, warm weather, and end to coats, boots, hats and mittens. We already had one good teaser day not long ago where temperatures climbed into the 60's, but they rapidly fell back into more seasonable temperatures a day or two later. That was just enough to make me long even more for spring and long warm days. Soon. Very soon.