OK, I’m cheating and doing two days in one. But honestly, we’ve done very little. We’ve caught up on our sleep – which I badly needed. My health’s doing well, but this week of relaxing and doing not too much has been badly needed.
We’ve spent plenty of time catching up and hanging out – we’ve all missed each other while the Colemans have been here. Steve, Scott and Alex have been playing Magic and a bunch of other card games, and we’ve all been watching the Olympics.
We’ve also been to the shops – as if we hadn’t done enough shopping in NY! Scott and Alex now have enough clothes to last them for a good few years (and can stop wearing the jeans I bought them when I was last in the US in 2006, we’ve now re-stocked). My bankruptcy will be announced shortly.
The snow is endless – they’ve been busy plowing and salting, but there’s literally nowhere to put it. In some locations they’re carting it away in trucks and dumping it in remote locations.
This photo of the carpark at the local Westfield (yep, they’ve got ’em here too) gives you some idea – this is what it looks like pretty much everywhere – snow stacked several metres high wherever you look, blocking access, parking spaces, whatever. Footpaths are all non-existent, and most roads are only partially plowed. I don’t have any issues driving on the wrong side or with different road rules, but I’m really glad I’m not trying to drive around here.
To add to the problems, there’s a shortage of salt and plowing equipment (because of the extreme conditions) and because of the economy many cities and states just don’t have the money to pay for sufficient or timely plowing – after the last storm they delayed for a day because they couldn’t afford to pay the Sunday overtime.