A week ago they had quite a trial getting here. There was a freak lake-effect snowstorm in Buffalo. Yes, we do sometimes get dumped on there, but never in the middle of October. The middle of November would have been early, even. Apparently the lake was still very warm, and that had something to do with it. Global warming, in short.
Anyway, the snow stuck to the leaves, and so all the trees became effectively weeping willows, with snow-laden branches hanging down, and of course breaking off with loud cracking noises, and breaking power lines. There were several hundred thousand households without power. And many still don't have power a week later (including us). The night before they left, my mother was boiling water on the outdoor gas grill.
They called me the next morning and said they weren't going to make it, at least not that day... but then, my mother, having ascertained that the airport would reopen in the afternoon, went walking down the street and made a new friend with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, who drove them to the airport! Getting out of our street was really the problem; the main streets were relatively clear of trees.
So in the end they got the late evening flight out of JFK rather than the early evening flight. I still can't believe they made it. My friend Jf wrote me, when I told them they had made the flight but still didn't know the whole story, that he was sure my mother had gotten out of Buffalo by sheer force of will, and I have to hand it to her, because she really did!
The next day we went off to Mont St. Michel. Some photos for you for now (and more on flickr; I'll try to write more about it later.
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