Joe's Retirement Blog: The Blizzard, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

It is cold indoors in the sunroom. Too cold to hang out and enjoy the storm. It rages outside. The wind is blowing 20-40 roaring through the sky and trees and buffeting the windows. We are expecting 12-18 inches of snow to fall.

I settle in. I have nowhere to go today. I knew the blizzard was coming. I had seen the weather radar and heard the forecasts. Technology can be a fine and helpful force sometimes. Sure, the weather forecasters are often wrong about the amount that may fall but, the fact there will be a storm is guaranteed accurate.

Imagine life in the olden days before weather satellites, folks would have gone off to work not knowing what was coming and then end up with this.

I am at the red arrow, the movement of the storm corresponds with the black arrow - the storm will rage for many hours - a classic New England "Nor'easter."

It feels like a living thing that slowly envelopes me. It will keep me in its hold for the next 12 hours or so without abating and then, it will be gone, out to sea, leaving many inches of the white stuff behind, sparkling like diamonds in the bright sunshine.

As expected, it ended during the night, pushed offshore, and the next day dawned clear, single-digit cold, and bright.

It was a tough slog walking through the deep snow but I made it to the bluff.

The main roads are plowed clear already but some of the back lanes and paths are not.

Nobody is sitting on the benches today - it's too cold and the wind is blowing again.

Slowly but surely, folks plow, blow, and/or shovel their way out. Ready for the next storm whenever it comes. When it was all done, the final tally was 17 inches for Plymouth.