As a promised follow-up to an earlier post today, it turns out there was a storm after all.  Despite the monkey’s hopeful strategy.  There were a couple of random flakes early but it started right at 10 AM in earnest, just as predicted.  And by earnest I mean blizzardy, horizontal snow accompanied by a howling wind that was just evil.  By 1130 when Kongo went out for lunch the parking lot (image below) looked pretty ugly and Kongo (above) took ten minutes to clear the windshield of snow.

By 1:30 it was time to leave.  Actually it was time to evacuate.  There was nobody left at the office and Kongo was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get out of the parking lot and didn’t want to spend the night curled up on the conference room floor!  He could also see a long line of cars on the streets running by the office caused by the people in surrounding areas who decided to all leave at once.  Better go get in that line while the getting was good.
Snow plows were conspicuously absent.  Maybe they were on the freeways but nobody could get to the freeways.  It took Kongo an hour and a half to go the 1.5 miles from his office to the hotel.  Maximum speed was about 5 MPH but mostly it was just stoping and waiting for something blocking the road ahead to clear.  People get cranky in these conditions.  Traffic lights were short-cycled, cars broke down, people were stranded at bus stops, and giant trucks appeared from nowhere to block intersections.  It was just lousy.  EAST COAST WEATHER SUCKS this time of year and there’s not much a monkey can do about it.

By evening the wind was still blowing strong and snow was drifting up over car doors but it seemed to be lessening a bit.  The Weather Channel did say this was supposed to be a fast moving storm so giddy-up snow, get on out of here and go back to Canada where you belong!  Of course there isn’t a silver lining in these cloudy skies.  Tomorrow is supposed to be “bitterly cold” and the monkey well remembers that description from his encounter with the POLAR VORTEX earlier this month.

No worries.  It should all be clear by Friday when he heads back to the West Coast and he has a golf date on Saturday and the weather will be in the 80s.  Hope springs eternal.

Travel safe.  Have fun.  Stay warm.