A northeaster by the numbers, from videos to pizza
Parents endured "Finding Nemo" for what seemed like the millionth time. Snowplow drivers worked more than 48 hours without sleep. And travelers weathered seemingly endless delays as they waited for flights out of Logan Airport.
Whether it was inches of snow, hours of shoveling, or games of Uno played, many area residents spent at least part of the weekend counting. Here's how some of them quantified the weekend's wild weather:
3: Truckloads of salt sold by Home Depot in West Roxbury to customers who got there before the store ran out Friday night. Snow shovels were sold out by Saturday afternoon. "All we've got now are bags of sand, and customers are buying those pretty quickly," one store manager said yesterday afternoon.
2: Additional weeks of misery and cramming for students who were planning to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test at Belmont High School on Saturday. Now they won't take the SAT until Dec. 20.
100: Buried fire hydrants Cambridge Fire Department, Engine 3, had to dig out yesterday and today. "We'll be digging them out all week now," one firefighter said as he heaved a shovel full of snow onto a nearby drift.
2: Pleas for help from Engine 3 firefighters that residents not shovel snow onto hydrants.
15: Reporters WCVB-TV Channel 5 used to cover the storm, according to assistant news director Neil Ungerleider.
450,000: Pounds of snow WCVB reporters estimated had to be removed from the football field at Gillette Stadium before the Patriots game yesterday.
100: Hotel rooms at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport occupied by flight crews who were stuck. "They pretty much didn't have a choice," one front desk manager said.
288: Estimated times Paul and Deborah Adams heard the "Please do not leave your luggage unattended" announcement at Logan International Airport as of 3 p.m. yesterday. The Crawford, Texas, couple also consumed five cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee during their 24-hour wait for a flight home.
1: Hour of sleep that state snowplow driver John Small managed to catch between Friday night and yesterday afternoon.
48: Hours snowplow driver Gary Fitzpatrick spent in the Star Market parking lot on Morrissey Boulevard. "I don't get paid for this. I do it for fun," Fitzpatrick said yesterday, his eyes a little glassy from lack of sleep. "I bought this truck so I could go plowing."
60: Minutes hungry shut-ins waited for deliveries from Everett House of Pizza this weekend. "Can you believe, some people complain that it takes too long," manager Gregory Karterakis said. "I tell them, `Come pick it up, then.' "
1: Delivery driver on duty this weekend at Everett House of Pizza. "I have only one with a pickup truck," Karterakis said. "The others have small cars, and they couldn't come in."
21: Movies for snow lovers listed on GreenCine website, including "Nanook of the North," "Snow Dogs," "Jack Frost," "Smilla's Sense of Snow," and "Aspen Extreme."
3: Times that City Council President Michael Flaherty's family watched "Finding Nemo" to get through the storm. The Flaherty children, ages 2 through 14, also watched "Dora the Explorer," "SpongeBob SquarePants," "SpongeBob SquarePants Christmas," "Blue's Clues," and "Noggin." The Wiggles's "Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas" topped the Flaherty's list, though, with "at least 10" viewings during the storm. "We've watched nearly every Christmas special known to man," Flaherty said.
35: Years of snowstorm cleanup overseen by Joe Casazza, Boston's director of the Department of Public Works since 1968.
5th: Place in terms of headaches and total inches of snow. That's how Casazza, who slept in his City Hall office Friday and Saturday nights, ranked the weekend's storm.
Globe correspondent Patrick J. Calnan contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
