Winter of My Discontent

I know that part of living in New England is the cold and snowy winters. But this winter has been particularly bad with one snowstorm after another. Storms that are not measuring in inches but in feet. Since about the start of January, southern New England has been stuck in a pattern in which we get hit by a storm every three or four days.

It's to a point in which most of the city and towns have exhausted their snow removal budgets. Another problem is where to put the snow. With temperatures rarely rising above freezing, not much of the snow is melting.So when we get hit with another storm (many places around here in yesterday's storm got another foot) it only adds to what's already on the ground.

Such is the case with my hometown of Fall River Massachusetts. They are literally running out of places to put the snow. In the old days, they would put it in the Taunton River. Which is already polluted. Thanks to the Al Gore green crowd, that option is out the window. They were putting the snow in closed down school yards. But many of them are full. So instead, they have been dumping it onto the runways of a closed down airport. So now they are talking about another major storm next week. More on that later.

On a personal level, this winter has just plain sucked. I'm an outdoors warm weather person. I don't mind an occasional snowstorm. But one after another is just driving me up the wall. Running on a treadmill loses it's charm after a while. Three major snowstorms within a span of a month and now one is coming possibly next week. This one already has a name:the Groundhog Day Storm. Yet another possible major dumping of snow. Here's hoping the Groundhog Day Storm is the biggest much ado about nothing since the Y2K bug. But with the way this winter has gone, you can never count out any forecast of major snow.

Like everything else, this too will pass. Spring will be here soon. But for now, this is the winter of my discontent.