Snow is not supposed to come down sideways.
But that is what I was watching as I peered out the window from our Swarthmore office Friday afternoon.
Not a good sign.
The wind was howling and the mild temperatures and rain that led me to joke that March was coming in like a lamb - a wet one at that - were fast disappearing.
It would only get worse from there.
I should have had some inkling of what was coming when I pulled out of the parking lot, took a left on Chester Road and made it all of a couple hundred yards down the road, just across the bridge over the Blue Route, when I witnessed a huge tree come crashing down across the right-hand lane. If I had left the office a few minutes earlier, I might still be sitting under that tree.
That was the start of another nightmare two-hour ride home.
I barely managed to squeeze around the downed tree on Chester Road. It was good practice. I would be doing it a lot on the ride home.
Once I took a right on Providence Road, the real adventure began. There were limbs and debris everywhere.
But it was not until I reached Brookhaven Road that I hit a roadblock. I had hoped to be able to take Providence all the way into Media, then get on Baltimore Pike to head out toward Granite Run.
I wanted no part of my usual route, taking Rose Valley Road down past Hedgerow Theater, then cutting back through Ridley Creek Road to skirt Media and come out near Elwyn.
But Providence was blocked at Brookhaven Road, so I swung a left and inches my way out to Route 352, which is quickly becoming my least favorite winter road.
It took me about 40 minutes just to creep from Brookhaven out past Granite Run Mall. The combination of traffic lights, Fair Acres, the Juvenile Detention Center and Penn State Brandywine, along with a couple of new lights, has turned this strip into a slog on good days. In bad weather, it turns into an instant bottleneck.
Traffic was creeping all the way out to Gradyville Road. With nothing but a sea of red lights in front of me, I decided to be daring and hung a right on Gradyville and take my chances going through Ridley Creek State Park. I didn't have to get that far. I got onto Delchester Road, and managed to actually make pretty good time snaking along out to West Chester Pike.
Amazingly for the way it had been snowing for hours, the roads were for the most part just wet.
Once I got to West Chester Pike it seemed like I had entered a completely different weather pattern.
Chester County did not get hit nearly as hard as Delco.
I managed to make it home with just the usual rush-hour complaints.
I surveyed the damage at the homestead. We lost one small tree in the back yard, but we never lost power.
Which is something so many in Delaware County could not say.
We charted the power outages all weekend.
At one point more than 600,000 people across the region were in the dark.
That includes more than 100,000 in Delco alone, nearly one in every four people in the county were in the dark.
Some people have now been without power since Friday afternoon.
At least two school districts, Haverford and Marple Newtown, cancelled classes Monday because many buildings still do not have power.
Driving, especially in Springfield, continues to be an adventure because of a number of busy intersections where traffic signals remain out, especially on Baltimore Pike.
Many side streets remain blocked by fallen trees.
This morning on the ride in, I decided to be adventurous and give Ridley Creek Road a shot. I made it. Barely.
And as I made my way onto Chester Road and headed for the office, there was my old friend, that very same tree that I watched topple right in front me was still there, blocking that lane. I squeezed around it, again thankful that there is almost no one on the road at that early hour.
I imagine the morning commute is going to be an adventure.
Get used to it. They are calling for another Nor'easter to hit Wednesday.
Swell.
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