It was a quiet week on the Great Neck peninsula we call home. The biggest news in our sleepy town was the arrival of a winter storm. It was the first time in nearly three years that some children had seen real snow and the school district very graciously closed for a day so that youngsters could perfect their rusty skills of snowball making and snowman building.

All over Great Neck, residents were rummaging through garages trying to find their snow shovels. Some even fired up ancient snow blowers left over from the Mesozoic era. Naturally, the industrious employees from public works had their snowplows in overdrive, clearing most local streets before anyone really had a chance to enjoy the beautiful white blanket that had settled over our small piece of the world. Huge dump trucks sprinkled sand on the icy roads, with all the zest of busy busboys sprinkling black pepper on a freshlymade salad.

Most folks had the good common sense to stay home, except for a few intrepid souls who needed to mail a package at the post office or buy a quart of milk at one of the local supermarkets. I was at the post office the morning the snow fell and it was a wonderful time to be there. There was no line and the postal clerks, feeling justifiably proud that no unexpected precipitation could prevent them from the fine performance of their duties, were only too pleased to greet the few customers who had wandered in for their services.

Of course, all of my neighbors were quite pleased by their farsightedness in buying four-wheel drive vehicles. Anyone with a Jeep or Range Rover felt compelled to show off its marvelous bad weather ability ¬ even if they had no particular place they needed to go. Being more a "throw another log in the fireplace" kind of guy, I was more than happy to let my better prepared friends enjoy the spotlight.

I did notice wen I flipped on the weather channel, that Buffalo had snowdrifts of about 10 feet, and somewhere north of Minneapolis the temperatures had dipped to minus 30 without factoring in the wind-chill. Just west of Great Neck, in New York City, Mayor Rudy Giuliani ordered the storm to leave town within 24 hours or face arrest for creating a public nuisance. On the Great Neck peninsula, all the village mayors issued a joint statement condemning bad weather, some calling in from as far away as Aruba to show their solidarity with beleaguered residents.

But all in all, in spite of the unusual weather, it was a quiet week on the Great Neck peninsula we call home.