unexpected yard guest: random blizzard 2011

as i write this, we are bracing ourselves... for the storm i have dubbed "random blizzard 2011".  we don't actually have a blizzard warning, it's a "winter storm warning," but i really like the word blizzard better... it's so much more evocative.  "winter storm" - that could mean anything.  blizzard, now that means SNOW!  so, using the poetic license that the writing gods gave me, i am dubbing it "random blizzard 2011".

call it whatever you want: it quite literally came out of nowhere.  luckily, i've stocked up on emergency supplies:

hot chocolate and marshmallows - a classic snowy

combination. also - do you also LOVE

that waving marshmallow?

a 'blizzard' ten miles from mount snow in the middle of december probably doesn't sound all that random to you, but, as garret has been gloating about in a series of tweets, we've had extremely warm weather as of late:

seriously though; it's been in the 50's and 60's these past couple of days.  i took more than one walk up the mountain in a t-shirt and last night we went out to a delicious dinner and i didn't even wear a coat.  and that was certainly weird enough!  but then today i am casually browsing the twitters (i guess this is a twitter themed post) and i see this! 

winter weather advisory?  extreme?  southeast vermont?  hello random!  you might not actually be random, but you sure do feel it!

8 to 16 inches?!  yikes.  i do like the variety, here, but this is just silly!  i wasn't expecting it at all, so mid-afternoon today i decided i'd better head into town for the few things i needed for dinner tonight/tomorrow.  while i was there i decided to do some "emergency stocking up" on supplies we might need, by which i literally mean i bought hot chocolate.  you'd think that after last year's "snowmageddon" in brooklyn, i'd learn to take winter storms more seriously.  but i think to me "stocking up in preparation for a storm" is always going to involve me getting myself some sort of treat.  after all, our irene preparedness in brooklyn was kind of dismal.  this is just kind of the winter version of that.

so, anyway, we'll see what happens.  maybe it'll fizzle.  one concern is that as of now, it's raining - pouring (an old man is snoring...) so the dirt roads in our neighborhood are getting saturated with water.  i just read a bulletin from the homeowner's association that said that because the ground is going to be wet and soggy and not frozen solid when the TONS OF SNOW gets dumped on us, plows are going to have a difficult time getting through without destroying the ground.

maybe i should have actually stocked up for the storm?


p.s. if you haven't already please click the link above in the words "snowmageddon in brooklyn".  it's my favorite SNL skit ever.