I woke up yesterday at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of my driveway being plowed. At 5:30 my phone binged with texts from my terrific daughter Elisabeth sending me photos of how much snow she and George had to clear out there in Oneida. I got up for good at 6:30, let Ellie B out into the backyard banks and shortly thereafter fielded the texts and news that the library would be opening two hours later than usual.
That news had to go out on our social media. My duty. My boss handled the web site and alerting TV and other news organizations. We got right on that.
We’d actually report to the building two hours later than usual, too.
I needed the time to clear our walks and my car and the parts of the driveway the plow can’t reach.
It was my big winter workout so far.
My next door neighbor was out doing his grounds with his snowblower. He pitched in on the bottom part of my driveway when he was done with his.
I was quite thankful for that help.
We did good, I with shovel and he with machine.
In the back of my mind, I was already wondering how much it was going to snow while I was at work.
Yeah, I’m like that. If it were more than 3 inches, the plow was supposed to come again. Less than 3 inches, I’d drive through it.
At 10 a.m., though, all was clear for my departure for my final work day of the week.
Mark Bialczak 
We finally got snow, after about 20 hours of freezing rain. I feel your snow pangs MBM. I love snow….Mother Nature can keep the ice!
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Snow is way better to deal with than ice, I very much agree, MBC!
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That’s admirable you did all that work on Friday, although I’m glad you also had some help from your neighbor and the snow plow brigade. I feel like it says a lot down here that when there’s even light snow in the forecast my boss at the library just says, “Everyone take your laptops home.”
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Our library sits smack dab in the middle of a walkable village, Chris, a port in a storm attempting to remain open if workers can get in and out safely. Our director thinks long and hard about open/close decisions.
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Good job Mark! You know, for 40 years I never experienced a work closing/delay since I had to drive in whatever the weather, before the plows, to answer phones and announce it! I know kids and teachers listened and loved hearing it. Nowadays, the internet and social media does that job quite nicely.
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You were the man everybody loved to hear proclaim the magic words, Mike. “Snow day!” My 30 years down the road from you at the daily newspaper, we didn’t have any snow days, either. One day, the morning of that big four-foot-plus in the early 1990s, I had to call in when I did not see daylight opening my Madison County garage door until it reached two inches from the top. I knew my shovel was not getting me out in time for me to drive to the city that day!
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Man, you must remember some crazy commutes from and to Madison County (was it around Morrisville?), a place of beautiful countryside and full of history. You know, harsh weather is a great equalizer, something that we all deal with. I think that helps to bring CNY’ers close.
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Yes, I did live in Morrisville back in the day. Good memory, Mike!
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this just visited us in michigan and we passed it on to you, you’re it! now pass it on to another friend –
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To the east it went, Beth!
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Bye bye
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I’m surprised you had any energy left to make this extra long post!
I’m tired out just reading it. 😉
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I save the long posts for occasions, ladysighs, and yeah the big snow before work qualified.
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Good job, Mark! Oh my, I don’t think I can survive the winter. I’ll be antiSNOWcial. Lol!
☃️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️☃️
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You wouldn’t how to g(r)ab he shovel, Patricia!
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