A strange spring blizzard
So, I've heard that people who don't know Boston from a hole in the ground think they declared martial law and are all scared about the loss of freedom. While it might be the case that if this shit had gone down in their city they would have something to be afraid of, that's not at all what happened here.
To understand what happened here, you need to know that the weather in Boston is extremely variable. It's perfectly possible to go from a 65-degree sunny day to a blizzard with over a foot of snow in less than 24 hours, particularly in the spring. And while forecasting has gotten good enough that French Toast Alert System is pretty solid, no one quite trusts Mother Nature to not suddenly and inexplicably trap us in our homes for a day or so every once in a while.
This time it was two guys instead of two feet of snow. So what, the principle is exactly the same: you wait until the streets are cleared and the T starts running again. Well, OK, you mostly wait - some people always leave their home for Reasons. I could see from my home in Cambridge a trickle of cars going down a local thoroughfare all day and I could hear kids playing outside. People trust each other to know when they should not be out and about (and offer to help you dig out your car if you need to leave for Reasons), and that includes the cruisers that didn't stop any of those cars and the neighbors who were content to let those kids give off some steam.
So those pictures of the empty streets of Boston? Were only strange in that there wasn't a thick layer of snow on everything. We know exactly how this works, from the Governor's polite requests down to the locals making situation-specific jokes on social media. Because another thing about Bostonians is we are incredibly resistant to change (look at all the blue laws we've still got!), and two guys with pressure cookers are not going to make us give up our way of life - including hunkering down until the storm passes and not a second longer.
To understand what happened here, you need to know that the weather in Boston is extremely variable. It's perfectly possible to go from a 65-degree sunny day to a blizzard with over a foot of snow in less than 24 hours, particularly in the spring. And while forecasting has gotten good enough that French Toast Alert System is pretty solid, no one quite trusts Mother Nature to not suddenly and inexplicably trap us in our homes for a day or so every once in a while.
This time it was two guys instead of two feet of snow. So what, the principle is exactly the same: you wait until the streets are cleared and the T starts running again. Well, OK, you mostly wait - some people always leave their home for Reasons. I could see from my home in Cambridge a trickle of cars going down a local thoroughfare all day and I could hear kids playing outside. People trust each other to know when they should not be out and about (and offer to help you dig out your car if you need to leave for Reasons), and that includes the cruisers that didn't stop any of those cars and the neighbors who were content to let those kids give off some steam.
So those pictures of the empty streets of Boston? Were only strange in that there wasn't a thick layer of snow on everything. We know exactly how this works, from the Governor's polite requests down to the locals making situation-specific jokes on social media. Because another thing about Bostonians is we are incredibly resistant to change (look at all the blue laws we've still got!), and two guys with pressure cookers are not going to make us give up our way of life - including hunkering down until the storm passes and not a second longer.