The Blizzard of 2021

It started quietly with a hush at about 9 o’clock at night. Very slowly and very tenderly. Flakes falling from the yellow sky and kissing the ground. The harsh wind was absent for just a little while. The yellow sky though, in my life on the prairie is how I know that there is going to be a storm of some sort, either rain or snow. Turns out we got a little of both. By 7am in the morning, lightning started flashing through the falling snow and I watched out my window the beginning of the biggest storm I’ve seen in my lifetime. I was thankful to be awake to watch the strange phenomenon. Sad I didn’t catch it on film. It was eery and fascinating at the same time. I sat up in bed, crossed my legs and stared out the window. Eyes unfocused because of the hour, but aware of what was happening. Snuggling a furry dog, who was just as fascinated and just as scared By 7am we had our first foot of snow.

………………….

We were warned several days in advance.

A snowpocolypse was coming. (There were a million nicknames for it.)

The grocery store shelves were void of most bread products, and milk and fruit. I stocked up the house, with what I deemed necessary. (Ham and veggies mostly) I didn’t go overboard, but it felt much like the year prior, with people panicking and wild eyed in the stores.

By Sunday morning we were trying to stay ahead of the snow and shoveling that first foot or so of snow. By the end of the day, we had almost two more feet. It was a record amount of snow in such a short period of time. No one was able to leave their houses, most front doors, when you opened them were jammed full of snow at least halfway up, because not only did it snow, the wind blew….and it was a true blizzard. Most of the pictures circulating at that point in time were of a line shoveled from a door way to the yard for all the pets to go outside. Our world got very quiet and very cozy. I spent most of the day pacing the front porch watching it come down. And cooking and playing cribbage

By the next day, the snow let up and it only snowed another couple inches. Doctors were making their way to work on skis, snowshoes or on the backs of snow machines. (A teenager here in town was a local hero… he spent several days picking up medical workers making sure they could get to the hospital.) Anyone who owned a snow machine was asked to help out, and they did. The snow plow workers worked 36+ hours without sleep and the city also asked that anyone with a plow attached to their vehicle to help clear the streets (Although clearing the streets was not possible with that amount of snow… there was just a line made down the middle of the road and you had to pray there was no oncoming traffic) School was shutdown for an entire week, as the buses couldn’t run.

We played and tunneled in the snow. It reminded me of what my childhood was like, when the world was constantly covered in snow (just never that much at once) I spent most the week shoveling at least an hour or so, but the first few days, much more than that. A neighbor helped us get our vehicles cleared with a truck and a plow. It saved us a lot of time. The Dino Dude and I walked to the gas station on Wednesday, as long as we stayed in the road, we were able to get around. And by Thursday we were able to drive.

It had been a long time since I had seen such camaraderie in my community. And it was refreshing to say the least. These kinds of things bring out not only kindness, but what it is truly like to live here. It’s harsh. And hard. And it takes patience to literally let snow melt.

Two weeks later…. the snow is nearly gone.

And it’s hard to believe that not that long ago it was a wonderland of white.