Saturday, December 01, 2007

Why I Left Maine

View outside the kitchen door at 4:53 PM. Note pitch darkness beyond.

I nearly got blown off the road while driving Mom's car to Maine Medical Center today. In Gray, it was 11˚F at 10:00 a.m. The temperature didn't get much above 20˚ in Portland, with winds gusting to 30 mph. Every step outside was a cryogenic dermabrasion session.

My stepfather asked me whether I missed Maine, which made me wonder whether he should be in the mental ward instead of cardiac. My answer: "Not in winter!" And that was before the sun started setting; by 3:30 p.m., it was just clearing the treetops at the horizon. As you can see from the photo above, it was totally dark before 5:00. UGH.

And--oh joy!--here's the WGME weather forecast:
All Eyes On Our Approaching Storm
Our artic [sic!] cold front moved through Friday night ushering in the coldest air of the season so far.... This will be a classic Nor'easter... Expect 6"-12" right at the coast and 8"-14" inland and mountains.... If the storm tracks just a little more to the East we could all see 12"+ of snow.
On the bright side, while rooting around the kitchen, I found a stash of dark chocolate and a four-year-old bottle of Mom's incomparable cranberry liqueur. So if it snows, I'm well stocked.

5 comments:

Sustenance Scout said...

Oh my, that thermometer reading looks daunting as hell, Bella, about as daunting as that forecast sounds. I just stopped by and have been reading all your latest posts for oh, about half an hour! So much going on in your life and you're still offering top-notch advice on working with agents! Glad to hear you have the provisions (and books) required to make it through a blizzard. Stay warm...and thanks for the link in the post about John's TCover apearance. Love his feedback regarding authors and public speaking. For someone who's literally wired to be an extreme introvert, he's an amazing speaker. K.

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

Brrrr! It's a balmy 25 degrees Fahrenheit on New York State's Long Island, and we're supposed to get only 3 inches of snow tomorrow.

Marie Walden said...

Dark chocolate, cranberry liqueur and an impending snowstorm. Fantastic!

Carleen Brice said...

Cranberry liqueur...I'm intrigued!
Hope your folks are doing well.

Unknown said...

Oh, my gosh. Ok, I'll stop complaining about 40. Well, not really, because for here that's cold. But wow, you have my sympathies. That's just... brrrr. Dark, too.