The tree service finished its work Friday, feeding hundreds of branches into a wood chipper. The snow in the yard is now below my knees and, with a couple of sunny days in the 40s coming up, I might see a few bare spots by Sunday evening. The bent-over evergreens have miraculously sprung back up after being contorted (and in some cases snapping off) in ways I had never seen before. The truck has been dug out and the big limb that had helped entomb it has been chainsawed away. Big front-end loaders came through the neighborhood the other day and cleared away the giant piles of snow at the corners that had blocked visibility and created a traffic hazard. Unfortunately, for people whose houses are on a corner (like me), this snow was unceremoneously dumped into their yards by the ton (see the nighttime visit I got, at left).

And Snowmageddon passes. I have a big evergreen bush out front that is probably doomed, and the tree work cost some serious change (but far less than I feared), and I may have to replace some front gutters that needed to go anyway, but that’s about it. There’s a fresh storm coming Monday but it is of the classic late February variety: A little snow, a little sleet, a little rain, not much accumulation. The average high for this time of year is 48 degrees and it will soon move into the 50s; snow doesn’t stand much of a chance against that.

Ten days ago, I thought I might lose a dozen trees and be $20K out of pocket for repairs. Actually, I feared that a random hardwood limb or the unprecedented amount of wet, heavy snow would simply collapse the roof of my house. Instead, what I got was some serious pruning. There are a couple of trees that are leaning at steeper angles than I remember, but that’s it.

I also got some serious memories. When the heaviest snowstorm of my life is followed four days later by the most intense blizzard of my life, that’s a lottery-odds combination that hopefully won’t be repeated. I never want to shovel my roof again, or kennel my dog for his own safety, or climb into waterproof pants so I can trudge around the yard and dig out the downspouts, or have my vehicles serve as targets for dart-like tree limbs. I’ve had quite enough of that, thank you.