in like a lion

Apparently the city of Boston has decided to do whatever it can to make me feel at home. The weather of late has been incredibly reminiscent of South Dakota, in spite of our warm temps and receding snow for the past few weeks. The extent of the warm-up was more than at home, the the concept is the same. Winter taunts us for a short time in February, just enough to make us hope that it might be over, then we get whomped with a snow storm in March.

Today was an actual snow day, and this time even I felt it was warranted. There was a pretty amount of snow yesterday afternoon, but overnight it really accumulated and the wind came up. Still no reports on final totals, but it was rather intense.

Even though classes were canceled, I still had to trudge over to main campus to work my regular shift at the circulation desk of the library. It was a quiet day inside, but the walk over was a bit arduous. The only relief was that traffic was a bit lighter than usual. The streets had been plowed, but this meant that there was a knee-high (even taller in areas) wall of snow to scramble over at the corner to cross the street.

One thing I find rather entertaining here about the snow maintenance is the equipment they bring out to deal with it. I haven't seen a snow blower, but they do have these contraptions that look like a cross between a snow blower and a street sweeper. It has a giant rotating brush, like in a vacuum cleaner, and it essentially just brushes the snow away. I suppose it makes sense to use such a contraption in an area that isn't known for deep snow, but it still looks silly to me. I have more respect for a snow blower. Or perhaps I just have more respect for the need of a snow blower--drifts three feet deep like a proper South Dakota winter. There's something strangely beautiful about the plume of snow arcing out of an industrial-sized snow blower clearing a road. It's our version of ocean spray, a frozen fountain glinting in the sunlight. A sweeper just doesn't have the same effect...

-Kim