Digging out in the suburbs of D.C., again

After two feet of snow, I stopped counting and just kept shoveling. By the way, those are buried cars on the far right edge of this picture.

I think we got close to 30 inches in Sterling, Va., just outside of Washington, while Baltimore was up around 32 inches. In the mountains west of Loudoun County, inch totals were in the 40s.

To show how serious this storm was, malls closed all around Northern Virginia. I mean big, upscale malls in Tysons Corner and elsewhere. Malls never close on a Saturday -- not here in the materialistic capital of the world where there are more enclosed mega shopping centers and sprawling outlets in a 25-mile radius than anywhere else east of the Mississippi.

For this area, this weekend's storm brought twice as much snow as we usually get in an entire winter. And don't forget, back in December we were hit by a similar storm, not to mention several smaller storms in between. For a guy who can't stand winter, this hasn't been a good year.

This winter is adding insult to injury (it has not been a good year in any regard) and creating a few new aches and pains along the way. After hours of shoveling I have come to realize that driveways, even short ones, in cold climates are a young man's game. I'd be far better off swatting mosquitoes in Boca.

My house is still standing and I am not in traction. I am grateful for both of those things. But get this, the forecast for Tuesday calls for more snow.