Last Thursday, February 9, our area was bombarded with over 10 inches of freshly fallen powder. On Sunday, February 12, another seven or so inches came down, only this time wetter and heavier. After which the winds picked up, killing power for many. Then everything froze. And now the weather's warming enough to make a mess of everything, with more snow currently being predicted for next Tuesday.

In Marbletown, an Ulster County Department of Public Works snowplow struck a utility pole on Kripplebush Road late Sunday morning, cutting power to 1,300 Central Hudson customers, according to the county agency and Central Hudson. Most had their service restored by early afternoon, and state police at Wawarsing said they were investigating the incident.

The winds on Monday killed power for another 4,249 out of 88,262 customers, albeit most of the hardest hit areas were in Woodstock, Saugerties and Dutchess County, plus some parts of Marbletown and Rochester, although the Olive Town Hall in West Shokan was still out as of Wednesday.

School was out last Thursday, and late on Monday. Checking in with our districts, we found that Ellenville had used four of its nine allotted days so far. Pine Bush had used five total snow days, with two remaining and Rondout Valley CSD had used six.

ECSD assistant superintendent Angela Urbina-Medina said that Spring Break days of April 12, 13, 10, 11 and then 14 would be "taken back" from the scheduled April 10-14 break if required, in that order. Days for giving back, should no more snow days be used, include April 17, May 26 and May 30.

And as for municipal supplies... checks with the busy village and town trucks in Ellenville and Wawarsing resulted in comments about there being plenty to work with for quite a few more storms yet.

On a personal level, my girls and I shoveled, endlessly, but then got to build an igloo, of sorts, together. I shared stories about the "good old days" when this kind of snow was the norm, not the exception. And watching the girls waddle through the snow, listening to their laughter as each pelted the other with snowballs, brought on feelings of that youthful excitement we all experienced growing up... the freedom inherent in snow days.

Even with the clean up after.