Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Snowblowers, Snowstorms and Snowdays

Unless you live under a rock, you've surely heard about the "great blizzard of 2013" that we had in the northeast over the weekend.  I recounted the events here and here, complete with pictures in case you've never seen snow before.

Why do we do that?  We always have to take pictures of snow every winter, like there's never been snow in this very spot.  I'm guilty of it too!

Overall, we fared very well.  We were without power the first night for a while and then lost it again for a couple of hours another day.  There are people who went days without power and froze.  We were very lucky.

After the storm, we had a gorgeous, sunny day, that was perfect for clean up.  I decided to go with k-ster to snowblow driveways.  Well, I shoveled and he snowblowed.  As the day went on, I knew would be sore and tired after so much work, but it was so pretty and I had nothing else pressing to do right then.

It was a big relief when we got the call mid day that there would be no school.  That way, I could relax the next day after working so hard.

This was my view for most of the day.

 
I'd be at one end of a driveway and  k-ster would be at the other.  I was either shoveling walks or trying to open up the edge of the driveway.  He was trying to get through sometimes 2 foot deep drifts and not blow snow back onto the driveway.  Or me :)
 
At the first few houses, the homeowners came out to  help and at first, I wanted to tell them they didn't need to help since they were paying us but then I realized how long the day would be and I let them shovel themselves silly.
 
Temperature regulation is my perpetual preoccupation.  We always think it's going to be SO COLD in the winter that we must wear layers and layers of turtlenecks and wool sweaters and fleece and winter jackets.  Riding has taught me that it only takes a little movement to work up enough heat to be fairly comfortable in a lot less clothing than I would have imagined years ago.
 
My snow pants are warm enough that I don't even wear leggings under them anymore.  My winter coat is so warm that I only wore this tank top underneath it and was still too warm.  I ended up wearing a thin Underarmour type shirt with a vest over it for the day.  Even with that small amount of clothing, I was soaked all day long but definitely not cold!
 
 
 
Looks like I should be tuna fishing in May rather than shoveling in February!  I love these bib snow pants because they never fall down, so I never have to worry about that little piece of my back getting exposed to the cold if my jacket rides up.
 
It was fun to be out with k-ster all day, knowing I didn't have to go to school the next day and enjoying the very sunny day.  The last house we did was in the dark and the snow had iced over and it was a total beeotch.  I didn't enjoy that one at all. 
 
And it was nice to know that I don't always have to go with k-ster because he has friends who are always looking to earn a little cash.
 
The next day, of course, I could not move my arms and I thought my hands were broken.  Holding a shovel all day is hard work!  I thought my legs and back would have felt it a little more, but it was all just in my forearms and hands.
 
I'll leave you with two gems from that day.  First, after the entire day of working and not eating as much as we should have (in fact, we raided k-ster's mother's house mid day) the following conversation took place:
 
me:  Where we going now?
k:  I'm  going to drop you at home and meet b-ster so we can do one more house
me:  Oh really?
k:  Yeah, that way you can make supper, I'll go do that and it'll be ready when I get home.

me: ...
 
If our life was a sitcom, this is where things would have been thrown and swearing and crying would have commenced.  If this were many people, I would have told him where to get off.  If this were most people, this is where the order for takeout would have been place. 
 
But, we are not most people, and I contemplated what I could make.  I really didn't want crappy takeout food and I knew it would take another hour for him to do that driveway, so I had time to make supper that was real food and good.
 
The thought of having to shovel out my car to go to the grocery store to get something to cook was enough to make me look at what we had in the house and concoct a really good supper.  I'll have to share that later.  In, retrospect it may not have been that spectacular but we were so hungry, anything would have hit the spot!
 
The other thing I will leave you with is another picture.  I had gone out to shovel once more during the storm and as I came back, I saw this and thought it was pretty.  The tree was all icy and the snow had drifted just so.  It would have been prettier if the snowflakes were actually finished falling!
 
 
 
Linking here and here

1 comment:

  1. Hey, new follower from the Aloha Friday Blog Hop. We get a lot of snow where I'm from (Winnipeg, Canada), so I know how you feel! Looking forward to reading more of your blog. :)

    xo,
    Kristin
    aboutagirl.ca

    ReplyDelete

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