I made it back, yes I am back at the helm here at the Lafayette Corporate Center. The commute this morning was relatively painless, I shifted my stuff from my messenger bag to a backpack, wore some boots instead and stuck my shoes in my backpack like a woman and altered my course due to a lack of sidewalks. However when all was said and done the walk took the same amount of time and I made it to work in a very timely manner. Last week I made the entry about adding a little snow to a commute, well I find people have dealt with the addition of 30 inches of snow fairly well up in Salem. We received the highest snow amounts in Massachusetts and it is certainly evident on my street. Let me just say thank goodness I don't have my car because I wouldn't have anywhere to put it. I will be getting it back for sure either Wednesday or Thursday depending on when I get up to Portsmouth, at this point it doesn't really make much of a difference. I can't wait to give my precious a big hug.
Friday - I drove up to Maine and had a little confusion with Travis about the key. He made it up to the Outpost (what I am calling the house in Maine) at 1:45 AM and I was able to get inside and go to bed.
Saturday - We woke up to no snow on the ground outside and went skiing. I telemarked for the first time and it went very well, I look forward to a long free heeling winter and some sore leg muscles. The snow started in the early afternoon and continued throughout the rest of the day. I went to Noelle's birthday party at her house and had some fantastic food, wonderful wine, and super shots. We even had a little dance party at one point, even Hagrid was dancing. We followed up the party with a trip to Tango Mary's to catch Entrain. We left at 11 when there was about a foot of snow on the ground and slowly made our way to White Cap. Danced the night away there, yes I know me dancing who would have thought. You can see pictures of a couple making out at Tango Mary's, we took a whole bunch of fake outs. They were just all over each other and we had to capture it on the camera. Kate, Mark and I left and managed to push the car out of the now 16 inches of snow on the ground. The window on my mom's car was fogged and we, oh I hated doing it, wiped off the inside of the windshield. Somehow we managed to make it back to Noelle's and I then made my way back to the Outpost. Bear River Road was covered in snow and all I could see was two tire tracks in front of me. I didn't know if I was on the right or left side of the road I just kept going forward. After a long time I made it to Riverwood Drive, stepped on the gas and plowed through the end of the street, unfortunately my headlights got covered and I couldn't see where I was going, but I couldn't stop for fear I would be stuck. I made it to where I thought the driveway was and turned only to get stuck half in the driveway. I jumped out and ran inside to get Travis, after yelling his name a dozen times I finally shook him awake. He grumbled and came outside to help me move the car. We had about 20 inches at this point and after about a half hour we were able to move the car into the driveway. Finally I jumped in bed around 1:30AM.
Sunday - This time we woke up and there was plenty of snow on the ground. I wanted to get up to the mountain early, but certain things stood in my way, they were called snowflakes. We were up at 6:45 and outside shoveling within minutes. I jumped out and tooks some pictures and noticed they hadn't plowed our street which is about a quarter mile long. We shoveled the driveway out to the street and then began the tedious task of shoveling the street. I abandoned this project and worked on shoveling out my mom's car. We were slowly progressing and I decided to try and turn the car around, of course this was the impatient foolish Keegan thinking and I managed to get the car stuck in a ditch. I finished shoveling the other half of the driveway out to the street before we tried to get the car out. After several attempts we finally put the car into reverse and both pushed it out of the ditch, but since it was in gear it rolled back in to a snow bank on the other side. A much needed food break was had and I talked to Amy who said they had finally shoveled out to Bear River Road and were planning on going to the mountain soon. I had to get to the mountain, so I packed my gear up and began walking to Amy's. On the way there a guy in a pickup truck offered me a ride in the back so I hopped in and got dropped off at Amy's. We finally made it to the mountain and experience the rare event of powder skiing in New England. My legs were still sore from tele, but I managed to ski for a couple hours. The girls dropped me off at the house which was now plowed out and I started to do a little cleaning up. Once again I became impatient and got the car stuck again. Luckily Amy and Jennie were able to help my push it out of the othe ditch and it stayed unstuck for the rest of the weekend.
Monday - I woke up early and finished cleaning up the yard and the car. It was so nice to have everything cleaned off and organized. I skied for about five hours and then made my way back to Massachusetts. Hopped on the train, but didn't have money for the ticket, the guy let it slide. We got stopped in North Beverly for a half hour and finally made it to Salem. The walk home from the train was tough because there weren't sidewalks and somehow I made it back. I can't tell you how great it was to be back at my apartment. What a long weekend.
Weekend by the Numbers
36 inches of snow at the Outpost ( Maine ski house)
300 miles travelled
8 times I listened to the same DMB mix CD because it was all I had
45 minutes waiting in the car outside the house for Travis
3 skier days
1 pair of shoes for the entire weekend
6 hours spent shoveling
12 times I cleaned the snow off of a car
9 people at Noelle's birthday party
4 times I got the car stuck
37 hours of snow
2 shots of Mr. Dooley's
27 trails open before the storm
65 trails open after the storm
1 run before I fell face first into the snow on the powder day and almost lost my ski
166 pictures taken over the weekend
I hope everybody is doing well and made it safely through the snowstorm. I can only imagine what the rest of the winter has in store for us.
