from bed i could hear my upstairs neighbor leaving the house this morning. when i finally woke up, i noticed the sidewalk was shoveled. he also tried to do the backyard, but stopped before he could clear the front path as there was no place to put the snow. i got dressed and went out to continue the work he left behind. snow from the front path goes out to the snow bank on the sidewalk; the rest goes onto the giant snow piles in the backyard. there was so much snow that my piles were beginning to avalanche from the excess weight. later i saw paul outside again digging out their cars. steve naturally was nowhere to be seen. afterwards i also saw paul clearing our backyard deck, including mine as well.

the snow had pretty much stopped by mid-morning. the official snowfall count is somewhere around 16 inches. i wanted to go outside and take a tour of the neighborhood, but the howling winds were ferocious, strong enough that it shook the trees and blew the dry dust-like snow into blinding drifts. nevertheless, i wanted to see firsthand the results of this historical snow event, so i got dressed and left the house around 3:00 in the direction of harvard square.

with buses and subways all closed for the day, most stores in harvard square were closed since employees couldn't get to work. i went to the citizen's bank (relocated in the basement of the wordsworth building) to deposit a $5 rebate check at an outdoor ATM. the biting winds eventually got the best of me and i decided to go home.

watching the news, i learned that this is the 3rd snowiest winter in boston history, with the total right now at 95.7 inches. at the rate we're going, it's only a matter of time before we break the all-time snowiest record. 2nd snowiest is 96.3 inches for the winter of 1993-1994, with the number one snowiest at 107.6 inches for the winter of 1995-1996. we need another foot and we break it: forecast calls for a bit of snow on tuesday, and something more substantial next sunday. that will make it the 5th weekend of consecutive snowstorms.

we were supposed to have our chinese new year dinner tonight, but with most restaurants closed due to the weather, we decided to postpone it. for dinner i had some ramen (my 2nd aunt gave me a few unexpired packets).