The ultimate blizzard

This is my ninth winter in Boston. I should consider myself a seasoned veteran of the cold, snowy months of December to February. I even drove a car to work through the last winter, and thought I had seen just about everything that a New England winter could throw at me.

Boy, was I wrong! Rewind to Thursday, the 13th of December, 2007. Actually, the events are so clear in my mind that I do not even need to rewind.

The forecast had heavy snow from the early evening, late into the night. But so what? The state had seen such snowfall before. They would be prepared. The snow plows would be out in readiness with their salt and sand. All should be well. A bit inconvenient, for sure, but not a big deal.

I set out at 1:45 PM to drop a couple of people off some 10 miles away. No back roads. Just Route 9 all the way, a major arterial. The snow was falling hard; One to two inches an hour, they said. Fine. We were moving along at 20 mph or thereabouts. I got to the destination in an hour and a half.

Annoying, but expected.

Then, I turned the car around. And got back home past 8:30 at night! A mind-numbing 2 mph speed average over a distance of just 20 miles in total! We sat on the road, 20 to 30 minutes at a time without an inch of movement. Two lanes of gridlock, apparently extending a whopping 40-odd miles all the way into the city of Boston.

I shoveled snow off the car at least 5 times during this ordeal, sitting on the "fast" lane of Route 9 all along. I bantered with fellow gridlockers. I cleaned the wiper blades of ice. I listened to the radio. I called friends and family.

And I checked the state of my fuel tank.

The level was dropping visibly, but I was not concerned yet. My cell phone on the other hand, was discharging quickly! Down to the last two bars of power. What would I do if it ran out completely?

I used the phone less. I started killing the engine too. I heard that people were indeed running out of gas and getting stranded in the middle of this serpentine parking lot. Help wouldn't get to them for hours! And we were all stuck behind them.

I cannot believe the state's incompetence. They have seen such snow before. It was also expected, and not out of the blue. Yet, they could not keep one lane moving even at 5 mph! Instead of preparing to plow and salt the streets first, the government asked all employees to head home immediately at about 2:00 PM. The 5:00 PM rush hour was thus advanced to 2:00 PM, and the roads were in no shape to handle it.

The next day, Governor Deval Patrick announced faith in his government's response, and blamed the mess on people who did not leave their workplaces until well after 5:00! We can only imagine what would have happened if even more cars were out around 2:00 PM that day! Actually, people who left after 6:00 PM reached home in an hour or thereabouts.

I am happy that my tax dollars are being used well. Maybe I should trade in my hybrid car for a snow plow! The miles per gallon reading that day would have been comparable to that of the plow.