Spectacular snow storm - but what's up with electricity

by Salman Hameed

I was again reminded last weekend, how glad I am to be living in the 21st century (though not as glad as the 24th century). I can't imagine living in the medieval times. I think it will just be too cold or too hot (unless, living in Hawai'i), and definitely showers will be limited to cold water. Plus, no blogging. Nooooo!! Well, we got a little taste of it. We were hit by a freak October snow storm, and the power was out in our place for two days. It was fun as our heating is controlled electronically and we only have electric stove and electric oven. But worst of all - no internet! :) Some places are still without power. Hampshire College was closed today, and classes will not resume for another couple of days.

The storm dumped more than a foot of snow. Since its still October and leaves are still on the trees, the weight of the snow brought down numerous trees and power lines along with them. There were only two places open in Amherst on Sunday: Rao's Coffee - that was serving cold teas and coffees, and Antonio's Pizza, that was serving pizzas in the dark. As expected, there were lines going out the door of Antonio's. I don't think pizza has ever tasted better than that!

Okay - enough bad things about the storm. Here is how it looked like on the morning after the storm:

Is this really October? Look at the trees behind our house. Some are leaning and will loose those branches some time soon. We only had one tree that fell close to the house. But there is no damage. Phew!

A snowy wonderland. These are trees right in the backyard, and the morning Sun is behind them.

The view of the front road from the house. Oh - wait. It is hard to tell where the road is. But this is a great winterscape.