It’s cold in here

February 26, 2026February 26, 2026 ~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

Yesterday our furnace died. Maybe the blizzard was just too much to keep up with, but it was only 14 years old. It should’ve had a few more years left. Note to everyone: never buy a Maytag furnace. We had several other problems with it before its untimely death.

Fortunately, my husband got right on it and we’re having a new one installed this morning. (K’Ching$$$) In the meantime, it’s cold in here! I’m thinking it’s about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but I have my coffee and my Comfy, I’ll be fine.

Last night we lit a fire in our fireplace and I made s’mores and then put them on top of ice cream for mixing in. It took some effort to crush the s’more and fully mix it with the ice cream, but I did it. It was good. Not as good as the best mix-in I ever invented, but yummy.

The chocolate didn’t melt as much as I would’ve like, but I managed.

Here are some of my post-blizzard pics from Tuesday.

This is the snowbank at the TOP of my driveway—right next to the house. I’m 5’ 8.5” so that’s a lot of snow. The plow guy has no other place else to pile it all up. There’s a flower garden under there, which I’m worried about. Note: I had to balance my phone on a trashcan with my mitten and use “timer” to take this photo. That’s real skill.

I can’t tell if this mailbox is still attached to its post. Sometimes the plows knock off mailboxes and people just shove them into the snowbanks until they can be repaired. People then try to make the town do the repairs, but I know from experience, it’s easier to do it yourself.

In all, we got about 12-14 inches of new snow, but Rhode Island really got slammed. They beat their Blizzard of ‘78 record, with 35” inches in Providence (38” at the airport).

Blizzards of Yore

My Rapunzel driveway

February 24, 2026 ~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments

Blizzard is over! And the power stayed on!! Two things to be grateful for.

However, there’s still the matter of the driveway. We have a long, skinny, mini-hill of a driveway that is not passable until plowed or snowblowed. And shoveling anything more than a couple of inches off of it requires a level of fitness that I do not possess.

The plow guy came once yesterday but I’ve just learned that his plow broke, so I am trapped up here. My husband managed to get his car out this morning, but will never be able to get back up the driveway unless it gets plowed again.

This is an ongoing situation with this house that I had all but forgotten about, because we haven’t had this much snow in years.

So, I’m up here alone in my snowbound fortress, waiting for some man to save me. Either the plow guy (young and cute) or my husband (strong but bad knees) will have to rescue me. This situation always reminds me of Rapunzel.

If my hair was long enough, I could braid it into a rope and throw it down the driveway to my potential rescuer.

This round tower in Ireland also reminded me of Rapunzel

I know, I know. A real feminist would’ve learned to use a snowblower years ago and get herself out. Blame that one on my father. “Girls don’t blow snow.”

Blizzards of yore

January 24, 2026January 24, 2026 ~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments

In case you haven’t heard, a major winter storm is coming—the likes of which we haven’t seen around here since 2022.

It’s currently 1 degree Fahrenheit and the grocery stores will be packed today with everyone trying to stock up before the snow starts tomorrow around noon. (At this point, I’m still planning to go to church tomorrow morning.) People in non-snow climates: the idea of being stuck inside with your loved ones for 24-48 hours tends to make people buy eggs, milk, bread and firewood like they’re going out of style.

A shared memory for GenXers from Massachusetts is the Bizzard of ‘78, when they cancelled school for like a whole week. It was awesome. People remember jumping off their roofs into huge snowbanks, bumper skiing (when you hold onto your friend’s bumper and they pull you down the snow covered street), and building giant holes and igloos which could’ve collapsed and suffocated their occupants at any moment. There were surprisingly few snow accidents, although one friend’s brother was very seriously injured by a plow that didn’t see him playing in a snow bank. Stay OUT OF THE WAY of the plows, people!