Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Seen here: Before and after photos of the front yard and sidewalk. No, you can’t tell there’s a sidewalk in the top photo. That’s kind of the point.

My knees, calves and feet don’t hurt. This is probably because for a great deal of my snow-clearing time this morning I was standing in snow up to my mid-thighs, effectively icing down all my muscles below the snowline.

Everything else? Kinda sore.

We got about 20″ total from this storm plus the snow the plow pushed back onto the sidewalk when he pushed back the snowbank. Again.

The snow ate a mini van. It also hid the Durango rather effectively. The Clubman is gone.

I went out about 9:30 a.m. to start clearing. The Best Neighbor in the World and his wife joined me about an hour later. I’d only gotten to the end of the walk from the house by that point. By noon, we’d cleared all the sidewalks and the front of the driveway. (Our driveways are side by side.) Cutting through the snowbank pushed into the sidewalk and the driveway required me to break up the snow and feed it to the snow blower as Best Neighbor pushed it. It’s a wee, electric snow blower but we really adore it. Our 1-2 punch to the snowbank snow allowed us to push through the work fairly quickly (compared to shoveling alone at least) but was pretty brutal on my arms and shoulders.

Last night, I shoveled off the flat roof of the porch in the middle of the storm. I wasn’t going to do it but I moved about 16″ off it and I’m glad I did. This was my first roof-shoveling experience. I’m not a fan of heights but somehow it’s easier to do when you can convince your brain that the snow will break your fall. Now the roof is clear and if we get more snow I won’t have to worry about the silly flat roof for a bit. Of course, if we get another 20″, I’ll be out there again.

Though I will admit there’s something lovely and meditative about being out in a snowstorm at dusk and being on top of a roof just enhances the feeling. Very few people were out doing anything. A car or truck would be go by here and there, but mostly it was just me, the trees and the snow.

The sun is great - it cleaned things up nicely this afternoon. You can even see part of the Durango!

Strangest sight of the storm: an El Camino with a big Eagles (the local football team) logo from fender to fender with a snow blower in the back. I’ve seen it twice now and have yet to get a photo.

The latest snow photos start here.

All in all? It’s starting to feel like home.

tags: snow, snowpocalypse, weather