Friday, March 20th - first day of spring?????

Conditions at 7:50 am: Sunny and -8' although it feels nicer than that with no wind
Expected later: More sun and -4' , a gorgeous day on the way

Hopefully this will be the day I can go home. In retrospect I should have stayed home on Wednesday morning. The storm started mid morning and continued to intensify until they sent us home from work at 1:00.  By that time our road was impassable so I made the decision to stay in town. I found a small B&B type place downtown on Sydney Street and booked a room.

Of course I had no clothes or anything with me and the roads were deteriorating by the minute. Lucky for me the Superstore was one of the few places on the island that was still open. Even luckier for me, they sell not only food, but toiletries and clothing. So after picking up toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, socks, underwear, a pullover and some food, I was good to go.

I spent a lovely evening watching TV and enjoying my mini vacation but listening to the wind howling all night long. In the morning things were a mess yet again and work was staying closed until 10:00 so I stayed put until then. I arrived at work shortly before 10:00 to find that they weren't opening until noon, but there were some folks there and the phone was busy so I had lots to do.

I called Lloyd at 4:00 yesterday afternoon  only to find that our road was still impassable and for a second night, he wouldn't be able to get out to work either.  Well, that's just swell. So I called the lady at the place I stayed the night before and advised I needed my old room back. No problem. I spoke to Lloyd at 8:00 pm and the good news was the plow had shown up. The bad news he couldn't get through and left.

Now this morning I see in the paper that they are bringing in snow moving equipment from New Brunswick to help get all roads open by the end of the weekend.  With any luck, I might be able to get home tonight.

The other interesting fact is that so far this winter we have received a total of 497 cms of snow which makes us only 42 cms away from the record for the snowiest winter on record which was 1971-72 when snow amounts hit a staggering 539 cms.  At the Charlottetown Airport there is 159 cms of snow on the ground at this point in time. A far cry from the normal 10 cms that is usually present at this time of year.  So it's not all our imagination - it's been one heck of a winter.

Note to those travelling to warmer areas - if you  can, stay put!!!