Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Nooooo....

Some snow on Essex St. in Salem

     It should be no surprise that snow has been wreaking havoc on the Northeastern coast. Apparently the not-so-cold and generally snowless days of December and January were not foreshadowing a mild winter. Rather, they served only to lull New Englanders into a false sense of security before the cruel joke that was Juno, Linus, and Marcus. Depending on where you live in Massachusetts, you've had to deal with 70-80" of snow in the last 14 days. More is falling as I type this (1-3" are expected from this snowfall), and this weekend we're to be hit by what people are already calling the V-Day Blizzard (officially known as Winter Storm Neptune). Another 8-13" or so are predicted. I'm hoping it at least holds off until the evening because I'm supposed to go into Boston in the early afternoon to practice giving physical exams (there's no more romantic way to spend Valentine's Day, I'm sure). 
     As much as I love snow (and I do -I bought a sled back in the fall to be prepared), this is pushing even my limits. The first snow days were fun, but at least some of my classmates and I were actually a bit disappointed by having this Monday and Tuesday off. That's partly because we haven't had a Monday of classes in weeks, so that means we haven't had our patient history and physical exam class in weeks, nor will we have it next week. For me having Monday off also meant that I had to stay in Boston an extra two hours yesterday because a required group meeting that was scheduled for our break on Monday had to be moved to yesterday after classes ended. Also, our Advanced Cardiac Life Support exam (a requirement all of us need to complete before we can begin clinicals) has been postponed yet again as the last two scheduled days have been snowed out. Hopefully the makeup date in March will be snow free. I never thought I'd be sad about snow days, but as the time for our clinical clerkships rapidly approach, I think everyone in the program just wants to pack in as much learning and preparation as they can before we're out seeing actual patients. 

     At least Bostonians are trying to deal with these storms with humor. Early on people began measuring snowfall in "Gronks" (parts of MA are up to more than one Gronk of snowfall now). Some joking entrepreneurs are offering to send a water bottle full of Boston snow anywhere  in the US for the price of $19.99 as part of the effort to remove snow from the city. When the MBTA resumed public transportation on Wednesday after taking off all Tuesday in order to clear snow from tracks and gets trains back in service, many commuters (including myself) were not that pleased with the results. Some people suffered in silence, some were just glad to actually get a spot on a T or train after waiting an hour or more in the snow, but Bostonians tend to be rather vocal, so most people let their displeasure be known. MBTA might be thinking twice about having an official Twitter profile now, though at least many tweets kept a somewhat joking tone.

Huge thanks to the @MBTA for their new up-to-the-minute train status app! pic.twitter.com/t0YdT4oy1e
— Voodoo Darling (@VoodooDarling) February 12, 2015

Because of the massive amount of delay notifications - the delay feed is delayed 15 to 20 minutes due to snow delays. #WTF #MBTA #BOSnow
— Angry Commuter (@FTheMBTA) February 9, 2015

One employee at the Boston Globe tweeted his entire commute, which began as follows (read from the bottom up). 

He also had a humorous take on the situation. 

Good news. No train yet but temperature back up to 15 after briefly dropping to 14 #MBTAreturns pic.twitter.com/g0CQ9kx5DI
— Matt Rocheleau (@mrochele) February 11, 2015

     Today's snow was not nearly enough to cause a snow day tomorrow, so I'm off to finish writing up the case study I'll be presenting tomorrow, but for those of you not in New England right now, here are a few more pictures to help you better understand the mood of the poor souls in Massachusetts right now.

This picture of myself at the age of 1 is a pretty good description of how I felt about the snow after I had to trudge through it on my way to and from work on Monday. 

This picture is how I felt when I learned that last weekend's storm, which ended Tuesday morning, was to be followed by a Nor'easter on today... and a possible blizzard this weekend.

Lastly, these lemurs understand how I feel about trying to stay warm while the winter rages outside. 

Stay warm and safe everyone.