Strange, Pre-Snow Storm Day

We are going to have a massive snow storm tonight here in New England. Boston is going to be hit pretty hard; meteorologists are predicting a foot or more of snow.

As is always the case with these things, people are getting themselves in a complete frenzy to try to batten down the hatches and secure the provisions necessary for what will basically amount to a two-day-lockdown in their homes.

Porter Square, where my gym is located, has one of the most poorly designed parking lots I've ever seen. The spaces are tight, there is barely enough room in the rows between the spaces for regular compact cars to turn and navigate in and out of the lot, and there are no real safe walkways for pedestrians. Recently, as I almost got run down by a motorist in the parking lot, under the watchful gaze of a Cambridge police officer who stood and nodded in disbelief at the aggressive nature of the driver, even the cop said, "In Porter Square parking lot, either on foot or behind the wheel, you're taking your life into your own hands."

Anyway, because this parking lot services a gym, a pharmacy, a huge supermarket, a Dunkin Donuts, a liquor store and a dry cleaner, among other businesses, and because it was a Saturday morning, and because we are expecting a huge storm, you can probably imagine the state of the place this morning.

I took the T to Porter and when I emerged above ground, I decided to walk first to the Dunkins to pick up a coffee. When I walked into the parking lot, something looked odd. I saw a big white van, hatchback fully open, sitting there on the pedestrian walkway in front of one of the businesses in the strip of stores. There was no fanfare surrounding the vehicle. I thought it was one of those radio station vans, parked there to do a promotion. This is commonplace in Porter Square in the summer, but I could not figure out why it would be going on in the winter. It is freezing outside today and I could not imagine some poor radio station intern chump being forced to stand there distributing keychains or free Power Bar samples.

Within seconds of spotting the van, I heard sirenes whaling from all directions, descending quickly upon Porter Square. Then it struck me; this was not a promotional vehicle, this was a van that somebody had driven right up on to the freakin walkway in front of the shops. I moved closer to the scene, hoping that the van had gone through the unoccupied (former video) store that had gone out of business several weeks before.

No such luck.

The van actually went through the window of the store pictured at the top of my blog entry. It took me another second to remember the very newly installed coffee shop/cafe area right at the front of the store. What makes this such a shocking memory is that the main seating area was a counter mounted RIGHT IN THE WINDOW OVERLOOKING THE WALWAY AND PARKING LOT!

Obviously, being a Saturday morning, and given the crowded nature of this coffee shop on weekend mornings, there were bound to be several people sitting in that window. And I am not saying this for dramatic emphasis. When you sit at that counter, as I, myself, have done on several occasions, you are literally seated right in the window, on a stool, facing the parking lot. You can't sit across from somebody, because the window is right in your face. You can only sit beside somebody at the same counter.

As you view the picture above, not that there are two big windows, one on either side of the doorway. The window on your left as you view the picture is the one that the van plowed into.

There were at least 5 ambulances on scene. I saw 4 people pried from the wreckage and brought out of the store on headboard stretchers. I also hear that one woman, while apparently fully conscious and not in any apparent immediate danger of dying (thank god), had two completely mangled legs. She must have been sitting right there.

I was also freaked out because the owners of the shop, in an attempt to create a family atmosphere, had a small round table right there near the counter with books and toys to keep little kids entertained while mom and dad have a coffee or whatever. I did not see any children victims being carried out of the store.

There was literally a sea of emergency response vehicles in the parking lot. There were 10 different kids of fire vehicles..cars, trucks, one ladder, SUV's, etc.

The store as it is shown above no longer looks like you see in the photo. The entire left side (as you look at the picture) is smashed out.

Apparently the woman driving this massive van was in her 70s.

No wonder.

I eventually coaxed myself away from the scene. It seemed a little perverse to me to stand there staring into other peoples' sufferings, so I took myself into the gym.

When I came out just about two hours later, the van was still in the window and it was being extensively photographed by police.

Shockingly enough, no media were on the scene.

After the gym, I went to a supermarket. I have to stock up too!

The people there were out of control. People were ramming their carts into one another. Fights about position in line were busting out at every register. People were breaking bottles all over the floors and making no effort to clean up after themselves.

I swear, tell people in this part of the world that there will snow and the behavior is apocalyptic!