It's Winter in Rhode Island...(a/k/a Antarctica)

People got cocky.  "We've been lucky, practically no snow this winter."  It's going to be spring in a couple of months and there has hardly been snow."

I never even took all of my winter clothes out.  Other than a couple of snow dustings and some cold snaps, we New Englanders were having quite a mild, uneventful winter.  This would all end on January 27 when winter storm Juno, a blizzard hit us all by surprise.  Not really a surprise as the media hyped it all up.  There was plenty of time to buy bread and milk and get to the liquor store.  Both the governors of Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts were on the news telling everyone to spend Monday preparing for the storm and then 'hunker down' so the plows can do their jobs.  Our governor even declared a State of Emergency before the snow started to fall, but by the way some of the cities responded, you'd think we lived in the south and they had never seen snow.  The roads were plowed haphazardly, and on most side streets, only one car at a time could pass.  A woman sideswiped my husband's car causing thousands of dollars in damage.  People were walking in the streets as most sidewalks remained impassible.  Garbage pickup was suspended and some of us had not seen garbage trucks for over 2 weeks.  This was not the biggest storm we had ever had.  School was cancelled the day after the blizzard and there was a parking ban so the city could 'clean up' after the storm.  But instead of utilizing this day to widen the roads especially in light of the light snow that  had fallen, not one plow truck was to be seen.   So with the next blast of cold air a few days later, everything froze.

And then it snowed...on February 2, Groundhog Day coincidentally.  Winter storm Linus dumped almost another foot of the white stuff on us.  The roads got even narrower.  Schools were closed again.  We went sledding.  I drank wine.

Monday, February 9 - NO SCHOOL.  More snow.  More shoveling.  More drinks.  More food.  I don't even know what name they gave this storm.  I posted on my Facebook page that I was going to need to go to a fat farm and rehab if this snow continues.  Three storms in three weeks with almost a week added to the school year to makeup.  Some towns decided to take away February vacation to make up some days.  Some are thinking of using April vacation as makeup days.  My kids are off for February vacation starting on President's Day, February 16.  And it's a good thing, because...

IT FREAKING SNOWED AGAIN.  On Saturday, Valentine's Day.  The Valentine's storm, proper name winter storm Neptune dumped another 10 inches on us.

We've been eating lasagna, home-made mac and cheese, NY Style Weiners (it's a Rhode Island thing), sloppy joes, chicken marsala, oven BBQ'd ribs, shrimp scampi, pasta and meatballs, belgian waffles, breakfast sausage, bacon, fried tequila (yes, and it's delicious), wine, mimosas, chocolate croissants, lemon drops, french martinis, dirty martinis and did I mention wine?  (I'm hoping the hours of shoveling is a good workout).

 NY Style Weiners (Gaggers as we affectionately call them)

Roofs have caved in, there are giant icicles reaching down from the gutters and several neighbors have roof leaks.  The roads are narrow, traffic is horrendous and people are generally miserable.  

To add insult to injury, there is more snow predicted for tomorrow and Saturday.

COULD HELL BE FREEZING OVER??  

But it looks so pretty...