03 December 2010

"Frightful" weather

As the song goes ...
Oh the weather outside is frightful ... And the fire is so delightful ...Since we've no place to go ... Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!
And it has been snowing here in a way that I personally have not experienced.  In fact, the local newspapers and TV report that the Geneva area has not received so much snow since 1985 - and even that occurred in February, not in November-December.  Reports state that Geneva received at least 30 cm (11.8 in) of snow yesterday and nearby Nyon received at least 40 cm (15.7 in).  We are closer to Nyon and this is what the lake road looked like yesterday around noon.



Because I still haven't had snow tires put on the car - and couldn't get to the dealer's garage to have them mounted in any event - we walked into town yesterday.


We had been shamed in our desire to cocoon because the intrepid little Filipina woman who comes by to clean every other week for a few hours had startled us by showing up at the door.  I had not expected her to come at all in the circumstances, but there she was!  She had had quite an odyssey, having begun from Geneva city by bus, then by tram, then by train and then on foot from the local train station here as she usually does.  But generally the weather is not nearly so inclement.  So we had no choice but to show that we too were brave enough to head outside.  The snow had literally changed the everyday landscape to something extraordinary, with parked - or abandoned - cars lined up along the roadway like silent sentinels.


Some had left their windshield wipers standing up in an effort to prevent their freezing against the windshield.  I first saw this done in the local mountain ski stations.  Strange as it may look, it's actually quite practical.


Perhaps if we had had a fireplace to enjoy, we would have stayed inside in spite of losing face.  But it was actually fun to get out of the apartment where we had been cloistered for the past few days.   And, as it happened, there were major doings in our town.  More on that later ....

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