The Blizzard of Aught-Five, Part I

Union Square during the Blizzard of 1888 - Harper's Weekly, March 24, 1888.

Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service

...BRONX NY-HUDSON NJ-KINGS (BROOKLYN) NY-NASSAU NY- NEW YORK (MANHATTAN) NY-NORTHEAST SUFFOLK NY-NORTHWEST SUFFOLK NY- QUEENS NY-RICHMOND (STATEN IS.) NY-SOUTHEAST SUFFOLK NY- SOUTHWEST SUFFOLK NY- 516 PM EST SAT JAN 22 2005
... A BLIZZARD WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING...
... SNOWFALL... SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE NIGHT AND INTO SUNDAY MORNING... BEFORE TAPERING OFF SUNDAY AFTERNOON. PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOWFALL ARE LIKELY THROUGH SUNDAY... WITH SNOWFALL RATES OF UP TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR. THERE MAY BE A PERIOD OF SLEET AFTER MIDNIGHT.
AN ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM IS ALSO POSSIBLE... WHICH WILL ALSO PROVIDE FOR HEAVIER SNOW FALL RATES FOR SHORT PERIODS OF TIME.
STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE FROM 18 TO 24 INCHES.
... WIND IMPACTS... EAST TO NORTHEAST WINDS WILL BE ON THE INCREASE THIS EVENING... AND REACH SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT WITH SOME GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 45 MPH. THIS WILL CAUSE CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW... LOWERING VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES.
THE HIGH WINDS MAY ALSO CAUSE TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES TO BE DOWNED... RESULTING IN LOCALIZED POWER OUTAGES.
WIND CHILLS WILL DROP TO AS LOW AS ZERO TO 5 BELOW OVERNIGHT.
... ACTION STATEMENTS...
THE COMBINATION OF THE SNOWFALL AND WINDS WILL CREATE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AT TIMES OVERNIGHT AND INTO SUNDAY. TRAVEL WILL BE DIFFICULT AT BEST... AND IS HIGHLY DISCOURAGED. VENTURING OUT OF DOORS WILL BE DANGEROUS DUE TO THE NEAR ZERO VISIBILITIES AND LOW WIND CHILLS. YOU CAN BECOME LOST OR DISORIENTED VERY QUICKLY IN WHITEOUT CONDITIONS.

To my left a silver serving tray sits atop a small side table. On it are a hot pot of tea, my tea cup bearing the family coat of arms, sugar and cream. Not far away is a small wood cutting board, well used, holding a hunk of Irish Soda Bread, a jar of strawberry preserves, and a softened pad of sweet butter. A bread knife and a butter knife lay at rest; utensils utilised and ready for more.

Outside it is snowing in heavy sheets of white that impact and smother anything and everything that might be exposed to its descent. Even covered areas are starting to pile up drifts, as the storm drives the whiteness laterally. A fiendishly clever and effective trick up the meterological sleeve.

Sharing my chair is a small mammal, who most closely resembles a baby deer with canines. The mammal is curled into a tight ball that rises and falls imperceptibly, occasionally shifting slightly by the power of some tiny tectonic impetus all its own.

On the window ledge the whiteness totters precariously. If one looks closely one can see individual crystals of frozen water being swept off the lip of the 2nd floor precipice. Much snow slips from that wind lashed ledge. Even more remains.

A few feet away, another small mammal lies sprawled on the floor directly in front of a small portable heater which is supposed to be warming my slippered feet. This animal most closely resembles an old, if not luxurious, pelt. I muse that should the storm prove to be catastrophic (unlikely, I know, but its my muse and I can go where I want with it), I might survive on the furry meatloaf now so conveniently pre-heating itself on my floor.

Looking out the window I see, in order of foremost to most remote: the backyards of my own building and those of my immediate neighbors. The backyards of the houses one block over. The backs of those houses. The dark brick mass of the apartment building across the street from the houses one block over.

On the couch a bi-pedal mammal lays supine, reading under a soft but sufficient light. Within the slight folds of her comfortably reclined body is curled another small mammal, very similar in appearance if not girth to the aforementioned meatloaf du pelt. The bi-ped reads a tome titled "The American Frugal Housewife". I believe it must be a work of fiction, though I'm not certain.

The windows rattle. The wind howls. Thunder shakes even more blinding whiteness from the sky.

I think it might be time to go for a walk around the neighborhood.

(Stay tuned for The Blizzard of Aught-Five, Part 2, wherein the Captain goes for a walk)