It’s sad how one’s perception of snow changes as one gets older. As a kid I delighted in those rare times when we had major snowstorms. Not only would school be closed, but we could go out and play. One time I came home and my mom asked me where my other boot was. I looked down and realized one of my feet was uncovered. My feet were so cold I didn’t even feel it. A week later when the snow melted, there was my bright red boot, snagged on the branch of a bush.

Now I look at snow as a pain in my butt — digging out the car, worrying about getting in an accident, etc. With my bad knee, I feel particularly vulnerable walking to and from my car. When you live near the ocean snowstorms aren’t the norm, they are the exception. Usually the ocean temps keep the snow at bay.

Well, the winter of 2009-2010 has been one for the record books. We’ve had two major snowstorms already with another on the way. I live in Somers Point and I woke up at 6am Saturday morning to discover our power was out. I have a built-in power outage alarm. I sleep with a bi-pap machine. When the power went out my machine turned off. Instead of providing air, my mask was filling with the carbon dioxide I was exhaling — that will wake you up right quick. My mom and I scrambled to find flashlights, candles and a radio. I was bummed that we couldn’t watch the news, and that we might be stuck playing cards or that I’d have to work on organizing my paperwork.

We didn’t have to worry about food prep since we have a gas stove. Making homemade pizza for breakfast brought back a little of the childhood fun of waiting out the storm.
Luckily for my sanity, Atlantic Electric restored power around noon — we were much better off than North Wildwood, which as of this morning (Monday, Feb. 8th) still is mostly without power. I also felt bad for TV 40. Here was this major news event and the power was knocked out at the station.

Digging out my car on Sunday was not fun but I managed, driving to the local Wawa for the Sunday papers and my mom’s coffee. What would we do without Wawa? Turns out they were open and very busy on Saturday, in the middle of the blizzard.

Come to think of it, this weekend blizzard was more fun than a pain in the butt, especially when the New Orleans Saints pulled off the big upset and I had a working TV to watch it Sunday night. Still, I am not looking forward to another snowstorm this Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 11:48 am and is filed under Local News, Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.