Boots scuffed along the pavement this afternoon as we walked in the street to lunch prior to ballet. Days earlier someone had taken hours to blow the snow (two feet of it) from the sidewalk beside this Northern Virginia road. Saturday, in an attempt to clear the road shoulder to shoulder, the plows removed the snow from the road and places it in the sidewalk forcing pedestrians to take to the streets.
My daughter and I gaze at the piles of snow that reach for the tree tops where the sidewalks were just days before, and we attempt to guess when the snow might melt – when we might be able to walk safely down the sidewalks again.
The snow is melting. Slowly but surely, it is melting. Specialists speculate that it is melting about an inch a day.
Given we had just under 20 inches at my house, it will take the rest of the month plus a bit of March for the snow to melt. And that is NOT considering the 4 to 6 foot high mounds of snow created by the plows – most of which lie in the sidewalks.
I found myself shaking my head in quiet resignation. Yesterday we were in DC for the day. We walked some of the streets – ooing and awing at the cleared sidewalks and the pedestrian friendly environment. What did they do with all that snow??
Today schools were canceled, not because of the roads but because of the inability of kids to walk to school or arrive safely at bus stops. Unlike other parts of the area, this county doesn’t ask people to remove the snow from the sidewalks just as it doesn’t ask the plows to put the snow in space that allow for children, and adults, to walk safely.
I love snow. The white, pure, bright, calming, and questioning aspects of it delight me. I love the kid inside the comes to life with the flakes start falling and the radio announcer declares “snow day.”
But right now people, I am ready for spring!!
Bring on the sun and the flowers!!
(We have estimated that one of the piles of snow in our neighborhood will be around until late April if not 1 May!!)
2 comments:
the flowers are coming up in our front garden - please send us some snow??!! we have these Olympic games things (maybe you've heard??) and NO SNOW!! :)
I agree, TE. I am tired of my 29 inches still in my front yard, where the sun does not hit. I helped to ice-pick and shovel out sidewalks yesterday to the monkey's school, as I did last Thursday and was stopped by a lady from the church across the street because that was church property. So I told her that they needed to get this cleared, as the school had sent out word that these sidewalks needed to be cleared. Why must people wait? I am exhausted...and I sincerely hope there will be no more shoveling this winter.
Bring on the crocuses and forsythia, I say!!
Be well, TE.
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