By Wednesday afternoon a backyard snowman was listing to its right side, its twig arms lowered in a gesture of defeat as a rare glimpse of the sun took its toll.

The snowman’s shrunken size and sagging fortunes were an apt metaphor for how much of the Island was feeling after a mid-March snowstorm that closed schools for two days, wreaked havoc with already water logged trees, and at its height left 6,000 people without power.

Pity the March snowstorm, unloved in all corners. Nearly everyone dreams of a white Christmas and takes what damages arrive with a shrug of good cheer. But spring fever has the hots for new life, one not covered in white and separated by gloved hands and clunky boots. Even children looked downcast when peering out the window at the blizzard, arriving as it did just a few days after Daylight Saving Time. Little League tryouts are this weekend but all thoughts of having a catch in the backyard were banished as mitts were put back in the closet and mittens taken out again.

On Monday evening, just before the snow started to fall, the liquor stores were mobbed, a time honored way to ride out a storm. “It’s like a Friday in July,” one proprietor said, “but without the New Yorkers. And I’m okay with that.”

The snowstorm may have embraced the thirsty but it also brought out the community at its finest. Clearing snow filled streets and fixing downed power lines is long hard work, often done in the dark of night in frigid temperatures with high winds threatening. By Wednesday most streets were cleared but the excess of downed trees kept many around the Island without power or water. Thankfully, March temperatures are not quite as threatening as a January’s, but cold is cold and having to take a shower at a friend’s house or at the local gym, an added benefit of membership, is never pleasant.

During the storm most hunkered down, as was recommended, and rode it out with wood fires, games of Risk (what is a blizzard without some global domination), building snowmen and women, and sipping hot chocolate with the kids. Wednesday was up and at ‘em for sledding as the second school cancellation drove cabin fevered families out of doors.

An Island-wide walkout on Wednesday to stand in solidarity with a nation of students rising up to champion gun reform in the wake of the Parkland school shooting had to be postponed due to weather, but Vineyard students stood strong on Thursday morning.

For those filling out college basketball brackets, one might consider filling out another March Madness sheet for Mother Nature. Here on the Island she is 3-0, that’s three northeasters in nine days, with news reports of more weather coming before her lion’s roar is hopefully silenced by a lamb’s tender bleating.

The Witch of Endor, unmoored during the previous northeaster and for a time leaning heavily against the Steamship pier, looked like something out of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, a warning to all who dare set foot on this rock, with no drunk Johnny Depp to lighten the mood. March has been a lesson in real life, where boats are tossed about, roofs stripped clean, the bubble at Vineyard Youth Tennis ruined, and power outages rampant all around the Island.

Weather affects all communities, the hurricanes in the Caribbean last fall a testament to this, and luckily the Vineyard was spared the worst of those storms. But Island life is a front line defense when nature roars, frequently cut off from the rest of the world when ferries can’t run and internet service goes down.

But it’s also good to remember, when the damage is not life threatening, that a big blow is also a chance to spend a moment in the breakdown lane on the superhighway of modern living, with candles lighting the way and fireside chats trumping chat room sniping.

And when tragedy does strike, it is comforting to know that there is nothing like an Island community to jump in and lend a hand.