This is one of the most mild winters I've ever experienced in my 40+ years of living in New England. In November, we got a storm that dumped about 6 inches of snow. It was gone within 2 days. That's been it. All of the storms since have been in the form of heavy rain, sleet, and freezing rain. Big ol' slushy messes that turn into skating rinks when the temps drop. On the overnight, well...that changed.
We woke up to a foot of heavy wet snow. It was still dark. Snowing heavy. This usually wouldn't be an issue, but our road hadn't been plowed yet.
I woke Lisa up a little early to inform her of the possible problems with this scenario.
The biggest...
Getting down our road and onto the main road for her to get to work.
Our vehicle does exceptionally well on snowy roads. However, when there is almost a foot of heavy wet snow in the road...not so much.
We've been living in our home since July of 2012. This is the first time we've ever had a storm where our road hasn't been plowed multiple times during the storm.
I checked a few pages on my social media streams and a lot of people were complaining about their roads not being plowed. Several people posted photos of their vehicles stuck in the road.
Yikes!
Prior to going about our usual morning routine, Lisa had to shovel a pathway for our kids so they could do their business.
Then, we were on track.
Until...
It came time for Lisa to make the ultimate decision of attempting to get down our road or wait until it was plowed.
I kept telling her to wait. There was no way. The snow was heavy and wet. About an hour prior, I had witnessed one of our neighbors trying to get down their road. They got stuck.
But, Lisa was determined.
She headed to our vehicle. I waited on the front porch. I saw the reflection from the headlights as she backed out, but I didn't see our vehicle pull to the stop sign.
Sigh.
Even before I came back into our home and peeked out the kitchen window, I knew she was stuck.
When I opened the side door, Lisa had just gotten out of our vehicle and was throwing her hands up. I exhaled loudly.
Thankfully, at that time, still being early and dark, a couple of our neighbor friends were outside shoveling. They dropped what they were doing and rushed to where Lisa was to assist. Within 10 minutes, our vehicle was back in the driveway.
During that time, I reached out to Lisa's boss to let him know what was going on. When Lisa was inside, she called him.
He was more than understanding and they exchanged a few laughs...
About an hour later, they plowed our road.
The next challenge was shoveling the snowbank at the end of the driveway from the plow. It took Lisa about a half hour to do that.
After changing back into her work clothes, Lisa left for work.
My anxiety was through the roof because a lot of people said the roads were beyond horrible. It took Lisa a long time to get to work. I was relieved when she sent the text that she was there safely.
Less than an hour after she left for work, I heard "Uncle Bob's" snow blower in our driveway. He has a heavy duty John Deere snow blower. It was able to clear the rest of the driveway and the remaining snowbank from the plow at the end of our driveway. And, "Uncle Bob" made a racetrack in our backyard for the kids.
I do have to back up a bit at this point...
Yesterday afternoon, Lisa had told "Uncle Bob" that because of the timing of the storm, I had made plans to shovel our driveway, pathways, and an area for our kids. "Uncle Bob" told Lisa that he would take care of it. He didn't want me out there shoveling and risk falling.
At the time, I had a huge crockpot of meatballs simmering and a fresh salad made for our dinner. As a pre-thank you, Lisa delivered a container of meatballs and 2 containers of salad for him and Char to have for dinner.
Needless to say, our Monday did not begin as planned. We started our work day late. Lisa didn't get home until almost 8 p.m.
You'd think my next sentence would be, "It sucked all the way around..."
But it didn't.
This morning, we were reminded of how lucky we are to live in such a wonderful neighborhood.
Not that we needed to be reminded.
When Lisa got stuck in the road, the neighbors who assisted dropped what they were doing to help out. They didn't have to do that.
"Uncle Bob" didn't have to tackle our driveway and make a racetrack in our backyard for our littles.
They. Just. Did. It.
This is one of the many things that we love about living where we do. Neighbors helping neighbors. The neighbors who have become friends and family to us.
We are beyond grateful.
Today could have been a lot worse, but it wasn't.
Shortly before Lisa left for work, she helped shovel the end-of-the-driveway-snowbank for the wife of someone who assisted Lisa when she got stuck in the road.
At the end of the day, aside from feeling exceptionally grateful and the Universal Shimmy Shake of being reminded...
Lisa and I, over a very late dinner, talked about how this reminded us of way-back-when.
The days when neighbors helped neighbors.
We can remember shoveling porches, steps, and driveways during winter storms for our elders. We just did it. And we helped with snow removal above and beyond our neighborhood.
If someone got stuck on the road or in their driveway, people dropped what they were doing to help out.
That's what life was like back then.
Today, that seems "Old School" to the generations after us, but we still exist.
I'm not going to lie. It pains me to see the elders outside shoveling and snow blowing, especially those in their 60's and 70's, while those much younger peek outside and do nothing.
But...
There is nothing I can do about that.
What we can do is extend our gratitude. And help out in return.
Thank you to all those who assisted us today.
We appreciate you!
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