Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Two days after our snowstorm, I took a walk downtown.  The walk down and back was full of peril and hilarity.

Walk with me...

The view of my house from across the street.

The view down my street.  Those barricades of snow on each side of the street?  Many of them were taller than me.

Most people had shoveled their sidewalks.  Many hadn't.  Most sidewalks had more of a tunnel-like vibe.  The problem was that I'd head down a sidewalk only to hit a dead end of three or four feet when the next person hadn't shoveled.  It had me backtracking, crossing the street, and walking in the street a good part of the time.

I think the snow was trying to mail itself to Hawaii.  It almost made it!

Oh, dear.  Some mean person left their bicycle to its own devices.  Not nice!

Ah, now this is more like the sidewalk tunnels I was walking through!

All of the fire hydrants were shoveled out.  Do you see that pole sticking up with red and white stripes?  All of the hydrants in Newburyport have those.  Since I moved here I've wondered what those are for.  Now I know -- locating hydrants so that they can be unearthed during big snows!

It's been fun walking around.  One picture I don't have but wish I had to show you is of intersections with stop signs.  Here in town, in addition to stop signs, they paint S T O P on the road.  Until just a day or so ago I could only see the S.  T O P were covered with snow.  The roads were plowed, but there was so much snow that there was nowhere to put it!  We've had warmer temperatures this week, so every day or two another letter shows up as the snows melt.  It's taking a long time.  The piles are just so deep, and everything freezes each night.  But we're chipping away at it!