[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by KNOTTE

February is usually cold and snowy. March is truly the "In like a lion, out like a lamb" month- by the end of March you realize that Spring really is coming and is just around the corner. But just when you are in the spring mindset - we usually have one last doozy of a snow storm in April - case in point - my wedding on April 19, 1997 was definitely a WHITE wedding - a foot and a half fell the day before! But on April 20th, it was 70 degrees! We did miss the snow storm last year, but we ended up with a wicked wind storm, now famously known as the nor'icane (part noreaster, part hurricane) that all but crippled Rutland. For the record... I'd GLADLY take the April snowstorm anyday!!!

OMG I was up there for the nor'icane...absolutely unbelievable the wind we experienced. Power out for 2 days -- thank heavens for the back up generator!

[KNOTTE]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

OMG I was up there for the nor'icane...absolutely unbelievable the wind we experienced. Power out for 2 days -- thank heavens for the back up generator!

We were w/o power from the day of the storm (Monday) until Thursday. Thank goodness my parents live 20 miles away - we ended up moving in with them for the week.

Did you make it up to Rutland and see the damage there? I have never seen anything like it! The NE section of town - where I live - was the hardest hit. The evening of the storm when we decided to pack it in and go to my parents was unreal. It took us over 45 minutes just to find a way out of our neighborhood because most of the roads were unpassable due to multiple trees down or even worse power lines down. We were fairly lucky and only had a couple of thousand dollars of damage, many of the houses in our neighborhood had a lot more damage.

My kids were on vacation that week from school, so my husband and I decided to take the week off too and do some stuff around the house and take the kids on some day trips - like that happened! It was something else!!! YIKES!

[square peg]

Knotte mentioned the spring of '97. I remember that one. We had snow on the ground with almost-daily squalls in May right up until the week of Memorial Day. The weather wreaked havoc with the spring sports schedule of the high school I worked at. This was in Newport.

But, yes, things do change in March. I used to be the keeper of our local public skating rink and I could never get it to last after about March 10th due to the frost beginning to come out of the ground.

The transition from winter into spring, however, is butt ugly in very much a man-made way. As the snow recedes, all of the litter that was thrown alongside the roads by the ever increasing number of idiots out there begins to rear its ugly head. I've always noticed that foreign exchange students are here in April. They must think that we are the biggest slobs on the planet.

[Sherylcatmom]

Originally Posted by KNOTTE

It was something else!!! YIKES!

That was quite a storm. My cats slept through it while I stared out the window wondering which way the giant pines leaning precariously with the wind were going to fall . . . on my roof? Amazingly, we just lost a couple of roof shingles, which scratched my car. We are just West of Route 7 and I think that slightly lower elevation protected us. The NE section looked like a war zone. I'm glad you didn't have huge damage.

In an encore appearance, here is my Bailey, checking out our neighbor's car (well, probably the tree interested him more), just minutes after the Nor'icane departed:

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by KNOTTE

We were w/o power from the day of the storm (Monday) until Thursday. Thank goodness my parents live 20 miles away - we ended up moving in with them for the week.

Did you make it up to Rutland and see the damage there? I have never seen anything like it! The NE section of town - where I live - was the hardest hit. The evening of the storm when we decided to pack it in and go to my parents was unreal. It took us over 45 minutes just to find a way out of our neighborhood because most of the roads were unpassable due to multiple trees down or even worse power lines down. We were fairly lucky and only had a couple of thousand dollars of damage, many of the houses in our neighborhood had a lot more damage.

My kids were on vacation that week from school, so my husband and I decided to take the week off too and do some stuff around the house and take the kids on some day trips - like that happened! It was something else!!! YIKES!

We never made it to Rutland, we stayed tucked in at the house in Chester. I was afraid of being outside or inside during the storm, fo fear of one of the big trees around us falling into it. Between that and the sound of the wind -- AAACK! It was very scary.

Being on LI, we get our share of wind from the Nor'easters and the occasional hurricane -- but the last 'bad' one I lived further west on LI and we had fewer problems there than we had in Chester last year.

Your neighbor must have freaked out seeing that tree on her/his car!

[seanpecor]

I think it's SO important to have main living areas in Vermont be south facing with plenty of light. Possible the most ideal setup would be to have mature oaks/maples in a south lawn so your winter sun will reach your south facing windows. People in any Mid-Atlantic to Northern climate will go outside less often so those sunny living areas are critical. People with 9 to 5 jobs are the most limited in their options with regard to sun exposure but every effort should be made to get outside and get moving during lunch hours.

Cold is only cold if you're not dressed for it. If you've got the right gear and it's easy to put on and take off in layers then you can really be out and enjoying the winter much more. I used to have a pair of snow clogs I'd wear outside that would really give me some good ice traction.

I think winter blues are also a symptom of a lack of physical movement spurred on by a reluctance to head outside and get moving for some folks during cold weather. I know that I try to be 50/50 farmer/internet geek. If I'm 100% internet geek for a few days in a row, and I don't move around much and stay mostly in my office chair for 8 hours a day, I really feel physically depressed. By contrast, if I'm out and walking/moving/working for 3 hours in the morning, and I work from 1pm to 5pm in the office, then I feel REALLY good throughout the entire day. I think we've all evolved to be on the move (lightly, I'm not talking jogging or cross country skiing) for hours a day and when we don't move, our physiology suffers.

Sean

[GypsySoul22]

Thanks guys. It doesn't help I'm looking for work and climbing the walls..lol..
I do see it's staying lighter out later (on sunny days!). We try to get out and walk but the ice is defeating.

Doing a little pratfall on my butt yesterday was surely not fun.

Next year...cross country skis....and so on...

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by GypsySoul22

Thanks guys. It doesn't help I'm looking for work and climbing the walls..lol..
I do see it's staying lighter out later (on sunny days!). We try to get out and walk but the ice is defeating.

Doing a little pratfall on my butt yesterday was surely not fun.

Next year...cross country skis....and so on...

Don't think of it as a pratfall, consider it a shot at the Ice Capades!

[KNOTTE]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Don't think of it as a pratfall, consider it a shot at the Ice Capades!

LOL!


GypsySoul - where are you located and what kind of work are you looking for? I might be able to help.

[GypsySoul22]

Originally Posted by KNOTTE

LOL!


GypsySoul - where are you located and what kind of work are you looking for? I might be able to help.

I live in the Upper Valley near W. Lebanon. I'm actually able to do various work (very computer literate in emailing/searching), office work, marketing, education. I've applied for several creative positions lately, one in an office. It just takes time.

As far as the weather, I am mainly concerned about my husband's evening commute to /from work (he got caught up in some ice the other night and it was just nasty..the car slid on one of the roads even though he was doing 15 mph). It's the nature of the roads (hilly, deep dips) that make it rough to drive. We've been lucky so far because we have the sand guy out all the time on our road--I must see him 10 times after a snow...but ice--you know..it's nothing to mess with and with the lack of lights in the wee hours..