Tom Tinlin might be the only man in Massachusetts who kinda wished he had been at work Thursday.
As the storm raged around him, the former state highway administrator baked brownies with his family. Instead of racing around with a road crew rescuing motorists, he was wandering around Southie, posting videos on Twitter. And rather than working ’round the clock in the state’s storm command center, he sat down to watch “La La Land.’’
Tinlin, who last year resigned from leading the state highway department to recover from a brain aneurysm that nearly killed him, admitted that watching the storm response from the sidelines was difficult Thursday morning.
“I feel like Julian Edelman,’’ Tinlin said, referencing the injured New England Patriots wide receiver, “where you’re a central part of the offense and now you’re just watching it unfold on TV.’’
For 25 years — first in Boston, where he rose to become commissioner of the transportation department under then-Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and then at the state starting in 2014 — Tinlin was on the front lines of the response to winter storms. But Thursday’s “bomb cyclone’’ — no ordinary storm, Tinlin noted — was his first since leaving his job suddenly and for good.
Tinlin had been experiencing a severe, persistent headache for about a week last April when, in the middle of emceeing a fund-raiser for Fourth Presbyterian Church, he felt something go terribly wrong in his head. A brain aneurysm had burst.
Thanks to fortuitous timing, or perhaps fate, his wife got him to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center just in time.
Tinlin’s recovery took time, but in September he joined Jimmy Laguerre — a Beth Israel security guard whose quick thinking and attention helped save Tinlin’s life — in throwing out the first pitch at Fenway. That same month, he joined Howard Stein Hudson, a Boston transportation planning and engineering firm, as institutional and private markets director. He has also become a very vocal supporter of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, hoping others will learn to recognize warning signs, like a persistent, serious headache, that he did not.
On Thursday, the FOMO — fear of missing out — he was feeling about his old gig didn’t last too long. He did some work from home and pestered his 16-year-old daughter about all the fun snow day things they could do (she would have none of it).
“My wife says, ‘You see that shovel in the corner? You might not recognize it because you never pick it up,’ ’’ Tinlin joked. And so instead of plowing out the whole city, or salting the whole state, he got to work digging out his house.
And, with apologies to you and me and everybody else who is positively dreading the coming hours behind the shovel and snow blower, Tinlin actually rather enjoyed it.
“It was kind of fun,’’ he said.
He said he’s been thrilled to see new administrator Jonathan Gulliver and the team tackle this storm — even if it’s a little bittersweet sometimes.
“Of course I miss it. I miss the people. I miss being beside the secretary and the governor, out on the road with the crews. But God had other plans for me,’’ Tinlin said.
After we talked, he sent a text message: “Please stress,’’ he wrote, “IT’S GREAT TO BE ALIVE!!!’’
Nestor Ramos can be reached at nestor.ramos@globe.com.
