While I booked the plane tickets a few weeks ahead of time, I kept checking the weather forecast as winter storms can be brutal, and flight reservations can be canceled without financial penalty (and only a little inconvenience). Expenses would also be quite low: about $160 for the roundtrip ticket, and $110 for the two-day car rental.
And the weather forecast was holding ... until a few days before the trip. By that time my mind was somewhat set, and the forecast wasn't specific enough anyway.
Saturday 1/17/2026. Weather today didn't start out that bad, and Anne had no problem driving me to the airport. And the weather wasn't that bad later the day either. But between the time I got to the airport and the time the plane took off, a few inches of snow had fallen on the ground. The incoming plane for my flight originated from Houston, so it had no problem landing on time. For our flight, however, they needed to de-ice the plane (which was done after the plane was pushed back from the gate), and then wait in line to use the single runway in operation (other one being ploughed, I assume). The pilot did warn of a long taxi, and he actually turned the seat belt sign off when the plane was being de-iced.
The plane was scheduled for 12:07 pm departure (so takeoff would be say around 12:30 pm), it actually took off at 1:49 pm, and landed at 2:30 pm against a scheduled arrival of 1:10 pm. I would say that's pretty good. Turns out other EWR-BOS flights on the day were on time. So both lucky and unlucky. No real complaints, though.
My rental car was Alamo through Chase Travel. A Nissan Versa, so not ideal for winter conditions, but - again - I was expecting good weather. I ended up only using that for the airport to/from Somerville, and the drive to Quincy for the Sunday service. All together 44 miles, and three gallons of gas (I am sure the car does better on gas mileage, but "full" doesn't always mean filled to the neck).
Flights were stopped for a while at Newark Airport due to the snow. But for all the EWR-BOS flights only UA366 suffered significant delays.
Considering the plane had to be de-iced, and that there was only one runway in operation, this was not bad at all.
For dinner we went to Spring Shabu, an all-you-can eat hotpot restaurant (in Brighton, according to Google Maps). For meat they charge about $20 a pound, which is reasonable. We ordered very little meat anyway.
One could go back for more vegetables, noodles, and dumplings at Spring Shabu. Meat and fresh seafood incur additional cost.
Accommodation: "Mystic Hideout," Putnam Road, Somerville, MA (2 nights).
Sunday 1/18/2026. CC wasn't feeling well this morning, so I babysat her for a short while as the rest went to church. The drive to Ember CC was quite straightforward. After the service I stayed for a while to chat.
Jess cooked dinner. Emmie had a soccer match, so she and Joe P didn't get back until around 8 pm.
Snow began late afternoon, and wouldn't stop until Monday morning.
Monday 1/19/2026. Four to five inches of snow fell. Harrison dug out the car (I did pay him); it would have been difficult for me to do it as my back hurts nowadays.
Perhaps an inch at 8:30 pm Sunday night ...
The car return was no problem, and I had 45 minutes to "relax" at the Chase Lounge.
In addition to these small dieshes, I also had a burger and fries. At the BOS Chase Lounge.
BOS airport operations were returning to normal, but there was still a long line of planes ahead of our flight. Amazingly it took only 30 minutes before we took off, and we landed on time.
I never noticed this displaced on the seat back monitor before. In any case, quite a few planes lining up for takeoff.
The plane arrived right on time. (Actually gate arrival would be a few minutes later.)
Anne came by to pick me up.
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