Blizzard

Last night I experienced something I don't think I've experienced since I lived in DC.

DC is not particularly known for its snow removal. I can remember a number of snowstorms where everyone else had abandoned the streets while I, with my Chicago winter driving skills, tooled around. The boulevard wide streets were empty, with blowing snow and drifts. The car would softly plow through the piles of snow built up by the wind. It was a joyful experience, made more so by the solitude of it.

Although it had been snowing all day yesterday, last night during the State of the Union speech, the wind really kicked up (up to 70 miles per hour mountaintop, 45 miles per hour in town). My parents who had been trying to fly home to Chicago all day were about to get shut down. I had come home from work a bit earlier and had shoveled our front walk. At about 8:45 pm, their flight was finally cancelled so I, being the dutiful daughter, ventured out to pick them up and take them back to their place.

I opened our front door to find snow basically piled against the door. The entire walk had filled in. I struggled through the wind, broke the handle off the driver's side back door of the car and tried to clean the car off. The snow blew back on almost as quickly as I removed it.

I slowly drove to the airport in whiteout conditions and brought my parents safely home.

And then, I drove around Aspen.

Many times.

We've driven around Aspen during snowstorms before and it's always beautiful. But this time, there was a difference.

Unlike DC, Aspen is pretty proficient at snow removal. But this storm had blown in (literally) so quickly that the plows were woefully behind.

And it was fun. Driving through the drifts, feeling the car softly make its way.

This morning, I walked to work in 2 degrees, but slogging through the snow drifts kept me warm. My GPS which is no longer mine :-( puts the distance at exactly one mile. I left the house just as it was barely starting to get light and the beautiful half moon lit my way.

I was surprised that the Aspen School District didn't cancel classes today. Whether that's because the roads were cleared enough for the buses (questionable where I was walking) or because the school has already used up all of its allotted snow days for the year, I couldn't say.

Then when I got to the office, I was able to watch the snow removal crews at work on Main Street (see photo). It took an amazing 5 dump trucks simply to clear one block's worth of snow.