drove into winter

I was the assigned supervisor for the Carr Astronomical Observatory for the first weekend of November. I had not expected, earlier in the season, that this would be a good (i.e. clear) weekend. In the wake of the east coast hurricane, the skies were looking particularly poor. Still, I wanted to go. Partly to get out of town; and there were some errands to complete at the CAO.

Sent a note to the Yahoo!Group letting members we'd be open. In fact, Richard booked. I also offered to bring library books down.

As more heard of the expedition, tasks got piled on... Arranged for a large-capacity vehicle. We were able to take up two sofas and a single bed which Tony and I had loaded the night before. I'd check on the MODLs, inside and out. Check for missing shingles. Set the clocks back. Start Jean's van, if possible. Fine-tune the NexStar 11.

Kiron and I travelled north mid-day Friday. Left early to avoid traffic, as usual. Kiron had a few errands to do along the way, including yummy snacks. I picked up spare blade fuses for the generator and bathroom cleaning supplies as per Lora's request. I picked up groceries en route.

The drive was uneventful. Drove through a couple of brief snow squalls. Then, we noticed something strange, north of Shelburne. First it was a light dusting of snow on the ground. The amount of snow seemed to increase gradually the further we went. Then I noticed that the snow was accumulating on the north-west side of mounds and bumps, trees and poles. It looked like there had been driving snow very recently. And then it got deeper and deeper.

That was so weird. A first for me. Over the course of a 2.5 hour drive, it went from nothing, brown and green in the city, to snowy and cold. But we didn't experience the storm. It was like we had been suddenly transported. Somewhere much further. But without the air flight. Very strange.

When we arrived the observatory grounds, it was a winter wonderland!