What will be, will be

The local TV weather forecast has Toad Woods due for 12-18" of snow in the next 36 hours. The National Weather Service forecast totals are in the 21-35" range, though it does temper that with the word "possible" after each of the 4-8" and 13-19" amounts.

My favorite bit of irony so far is that the Lowell Winterfest has been put off for two weeks.

Here are a couple of distractions for the soon-to-be-snowbound and those fortunate enough to be far, far away from it, too:

Astronaut Sunita Williams hosted this fabulous 25-minute tour of the International Space Station. I could stand to be up there right now, you bet.

The Grand Canyon now on Google Street View. The Bright Angel Trail, anyway. Yowser. Can holodecks be far behind?

Okay, the Wii Fit Grand Canyon hiking game will come first. Hmmm...is there a Wii Fit snow shoveling game so those not fortunate to live in climes such as mine can share in the f/u/n/ exercise?

From dubious to impressed

It's certainly windy, and it's been snowing all day, but they were the teeniest tiniest little snowflakes you ever did see. Total accumulation as of 7pm: an entire three and a half inches. I know it wasn't supposed to be as bad here as it is further east, but a mere 3.5 inches was looking a lot like a washout as far as record-breaking, monster snowstorms go.

Another 10 inches fell between 7 and 10pm. I've just shoveled about two-thirds the way from the garage door out to the driveway. It's very light snow; I made good progress in the 15 minutes I was out. But there was at least another inch nearest the garage door as I came in. And I think we're still in the "dark blue" radar band. They said on the news that's the 2 inches/hour band, but the snowfall is well ahead of that here.

I wouldn't be trying to go anywhere even if the Governor hadn't banned traffic across the Commonwealth this afternoon. It's the first time I can remember when I've been someplace where the entire state is shut down, and where I've been under a ban on driving my car for anything other than an emergency. I've been in storms where highways have been shut down, and where people are advised to stay off the roads, but never in an outright ban. At 7pm, it seemed an over-reaction, out here in the Pioneer Valley at least. As of 10, it's clearly anything but. The last thing we needed was a bunch of traffic on the roads during those three hours. Even here.