Throughout New England, the snow blowers and shoveling were a constant on Monday, with a foot or more of snow accumulation.
On a frigid cold afternoon in one rural western Massachusetts town, roommates were taking turns digging out their cars, after a farm tractor cleared some of the driveway.
Shayla Keane and Haylie Prevett were in the middle of their shoveling shift.
"This car right here," Prevett said pointing to a Toyota, "the front door was covered in snow, and our [household] doorway, I really had to just dig myself out to get out here to begin with."
It turns out, this is household of public transportation bus drivers - former and current employees of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, each with professional training to drive on weather days like these.
What began a few years ago as a job while attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has become part-time for Keane and Prevett, and full-time for their two other roommates.
Keane, who is now a speech/language pathologist in the Holyoke Public Schools, gets on the bus schedule from time to time she said.
Because of the training she received with the PVTA, she said she knows how to drive in the snow, better than most people.
"We got trained for snow conditions for water conditions... for 'don't trust a puddle because it might be a sink hole' type of situation," Keane said.
The buses have rear wheel drive, or all-wheel drive Keane said, so they push you along instead of pull you.
While it's not that different than taking precautions while driving in a car she said, the buses are obviously much bigger and it's "a little more severe when you start to slide."
Be careful, Keane instructed, and "go well below the speed limit."
For now, Prevett also drives a PVTA route part-time.
Monday was supposed to be the first day at her new job.
It's still in transportation— working as a route analyst for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, the agency that runs public transit in Greater Boston.
This snow day wasn't by definition a busman's holiday, but for drivers, maybe that's not such a loss.
