Let it snow let it snow let it... all right, KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!
If I had written this two days ago as I had planned, I would have talked about sitting in front of my giant window for hours with my mouth hanging open in wonder. The snow had been coming down for four days straight in whirling sheets, and off and on for about a week before that. This is bigger than anything many of my Japanese friends here have seen in their lifetimes. Most people were already fed up because of the amount of shovelling they had to do, but my amazement hadn't morphed into frustration yet, because what I was seeing was too awe inspiring.
If I had written yesterday, I would have gone on about the gorgeous sun break we experienced, which though it didn't manage to melt much, provided a much needed reprieve in order for people to shovel their hearts out, and drive several rounds of dump trucks loaded with snow to the few open spaces left in town. Many people had stayed home from work and school, an extreme rarity in these parts, and everyone was out in the street, smiling and chatting, climbing on roofs to knock off piles of snow that had reached over 6 feet (just as bad an idea as it sounds).
If I had written this two days ago as I had planned, I would have talked about sitting in front of my giant window for hours with my mouth hanging open in wonder. The snow had been coming down for four days straight in whirling sheets, and off and on for about a week before that. This is bigger than anything many of my Japanese friends here have seen in their lifetimes. Most people were already fed up because of the amount of shovelling they had to do, but my amazement hadn't morphed into frustration yet, because what I was seeing was too awe inspiring.
If I had written yesterday, I would have gone on about the gorgeous sun break we experienced, which though it didn't manage to melt much, provided a much needed reprieve in order for people to shovel their hearts out, and drive several rounds of dump trucks loaded with snow to the few open spaces left in town. Many people had stayed home from work and school, an extreme rarity in these parts, and everyone was out in the street, smiling and chatting, climbing on roofs to knock off piles of snow that had reached over 6 feet (just as bad an idea as it sounds).
However, I'm not writing this two days ago. I'm not writing it yesterday. I'm writing it today. With a fresh couple feet of snow on the ground, and the inches coming down by the minute. With the trains to the airport stopped in their tracks. As I am melting in the subtropical heat of the office breathing air laced with kerosene. Enough!
View from my window: still in the early stages- note the small amount of snow on the roofs
Beautiful, right?
This is when driving conditions were still good!
Aforementioned sun break. See that snow almost touching my balcony? I'm on the second floor. Yeah.
My parking lot.
My car seen through walls of snow. This was after it had been unshoveled countless times.
Everyone helps out. Even the three year olds.
Oh boy.
Shock and awe.
