I Have Thoughts: I survived the Blizzard of 2013 and all the crazy that comes with it at ARC

I have tons of pictures so this will be a picture blog this week. Mostly. You know me: I gotta be verbose.

Side note:

Dear National Weather Service, please stop naming storms like Blizzards and smaller snows. It's stupid. Sincerely, Me.

Aah, blizzard Nemo. Or as we at ARC called it, DR 278-13.


Stop and Shop on Friday just before snow started

My grocery cart. Yes, I got snacky food, too. LOL.

Provisions...notice the Margarita Bottles

More Provisions. OCD: Spices alphabetized

MMM...Food!

Melissa's SUV

Those are from about 1 or 2pm on Friday...just an hour or two into the blizzard. It wasn't a hard snow but it was steady and windy. It accumulated ... quickly. These were taken from my front porch while Prince braved the cold to do his business. The white SUV in the picture to the right is Melissa's. You'll see that as a point of reference going forward.

About 6pm Friday Night.

Melissa's Suv

It was steady wind and snow all afternoon and it wasn't about to stop.

Not sure what time this was: prob early Sat.

Melissa's SUV

This was before everyone was up and at 'em.

Saturday mid-day

Prince making his way thru the dig out

Everyone got up and started to dig themselves out after noon or so. You don't want your car to stay under the snow too long or it gets iced and extremely difficult to undo.I went out about 3 or so with Melissa to help her dig out her SUV. Thankfully we have a super nice neighbor who took pity on us and used his snow blower to do it for us. See? Super nice.

Prince got stuck in the snow.

This is a water fountain in Kendall Square

So yeah, I survived the Blizzard. Then I had to survive working for ARC after a blizzard. We opened over 7 shelters...mostly on The Cape. It's all hands on deck when a disaster happens around here. Jarrett doesn't care if you're a Youth Outreach Coordinator, a disaster responder, a Director of Development, an accountant or...a CEO: you are expected to help out however you can. He managed a shelter for a 12 hour shift, himself.

Monday Shawna and I helped out in the DOC (Disaster Operations Center) on the 1st floor. We called shelter managers to make sure they were okay, ask what (and who) they needed. Then we helped staff those shelters for the next shifts by calling potential volunteers.

I was briefing Leighton on shelter ops


The daily 10am con call w/shelter managers & key personnel.

On Tuesday I was supposed to serve a 12 hour shift in a shelter in Dennis/Yarborough on The Cape. I drove down with another volunteer but because of some communication issues, they were closing by the time we got there and really didn't need us. We got to help pack some things, though.

Wednesday I was part of Bulk Distribution. We drove to our Dedham office and loaded "clean up" kits in a couple ERVs (Emergency Response Vehicles) so volunteers could distribute to people who were back in their flooded homes. I stayed with the Bulk Dist manager (a cool guy from upstate NY who was down to help us) and managed logistics.

Kat jumping in to help load the ERVs

Jordan and Jamie

Downstairs next to The DOC is another room we call DOC2 (lol...creative, huh?). It was storage until recently when they decided to acquire a "sponsor" and use is as a museum of cool ARC stuff. Also, it's extra meeting space. So what is "cool ARC stuff?" Old articles, pins, posters, pictures...and clothing. How awesome is this?

Thursday I joined the case work team to head to Scituate just north of The Cape. It's on the ocean and they had bad winds and a lot of flooding. The waves came over the sea wall and brought tons of rocks and even boulders into the road and under their houses. A lot of damage was done up there. When we got there is was 5 days post blizzard so most of the people had already called contractors and repair work was under way.

Inn on the coast...cool, Bob & Jo

Our awesome case work team


That has a driveway that is covered by rocks from the ocean.

The garage moved to the front of the house instead of the side in the back.

Friday I was back in the office and then at a school teaching, "Scrubby the Bear." Yeah: it's a program to teach elementary kids how to properly wash their hands to prevent the spread of germs and disease. It was fun.

Valentines Day Flowers, Chocolate and Bear

Birthday Boots from Mom & Dad

We had a three day weekend that was lovely. Daniel didn't have any loads so he got to spend the weekend with me. Very nice! I got a zip car and drove to Milford to meet him. Extremely relaxing and fun weekend which ended with me getting a bed! A real bed! Super nice. I couldn't sleep the first night because I was too comfortable. 5+ months of sleeping on a single mattress on the floor will do that to ya, I guess.