Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: February 2010
It’s a bit too hot right now here for me, 67°F out at 11 at night. At least it’s raining some. So I’m posting a picture of snow!
This was taken during one of the blizzards that hit in February 2010, the second one to be specific. There were actually three major blizzards that month to hit the northern east coast, though the third one only dropped freezing rain on us here in Maryland. This storm dropped about a foot or so of snow. Mind you, what you see in this photo is more from the previous blizzard that had hit only three days earlier, as I took the photo at the start of the storm. That’s why the walks are nicely shoveled and everything. I actually went out several times that night to clear off the sidewalks and street, to keep them clear, though it wasn’t that necessary. The previous storm had shut down our street for a day or two, as the overworked plows tried to catch up, but with this one falling right after, they just kept plowing, with the added bonus of people working more to keep their own areas shoveled. So after the foot of snow this night, we had a clear street in the morning, which was nice.
I’m currently running snow deprived. This past winter had barely any snow. I’m having trouble finding exact numbers, but I’d be surprised if we got more than 4 inches all season. And that’s counting the inch or so from the surprise blizzard the northeast got in October. Compare that to the standard average of 15 or so inches, and yeah. Then compare that to the 56.1 inches the year of all those blizzards, and I’m really feeling snow-deprived. (Amusingly enough, I got that number from an article from last November predicting that this year we would have average temperatures and slightly more snow than the past year (which had 10.1 inches). Instead we got very little snow and the hottest Jan-Apr period since records started. Ah, the joys of long-term prediction.)
I like snow. Heck, I need snow. Both snow and rain refresh my soul, for lack of a more descriptive term. If it is dry and sunny too long (low level dribbles don’t do much either), I get irritable and twitchy, and my general productivity drops. I also get a noticeable drop in productivity when the weather’s above 70°F, so long sunny summers are really annoying. I know that number is about right because I noticed a similar drop in productivity when I was taking a film photography class and having to spend large amounts of time in the dark room – where the temperature was constantly around 70°F. That was not fun, though the class at least was.
My productivity has gone up these past few months, thanks to some help from my psychologist and my establishing a permanent workspace. Still, I do wonder if it would have gone up even more if last winter was more like the one in this photo, rather than a complete dud…
