Snow

Today we got our first real snowfall.

I have not seriously shoveled snow in at least three years. Mark has been taking care of it. He also has been coaxing our old snowblower into doing a great deal of the work for him, which is good since he also has contracted to clear the snow from the three houses across the street (which I privately call The Trio), occasionally does Nana and Papa's, and has had times when it was important to do the Nevers' as well.

That snowblower either has given up the ghost or was accidentally fuel-flooded a few weeks ago when Mark did the elaborate start-up ritual to see if it would work. It didn't. It worked fine in September when he tested it then. Apparently, it doesn't like the cold in it's old age. Can snowblowers get rheumatism in their joints? (Which reminds me...what is rheumatism, anyway? Is it the same thing as arthritis?)

Even this was not so bad, since Mark is able to do so much of the shoveling that it's not hard for the rest of us to chip in and get the driveways and sidewalks cleared.

But today was a new story.

For one thing, Mark left at the crack of dawn to go down into a crawlspace and spend the day nobly rescuing a house from certain destruction - by collapsing on unstable foundations, if anyone is curious about the method of demise.

I, for one, was very thankful to be excluded from the crawlspace trip. But that did leave the problem of all those driveways. So I also got up at the crack of dawn and got busy.

Five driveways, five front walks, and the accompanying stretches of sidewalk. About ten thousand feet of concrete, judging by the feel of the muscles in my shoulers, chest, and stomach. I had help, of course: Hope, Leigh, James, and Lynne. I think Hope and Leigh feel about like I do. How something that weighs nothing if you pick up giant handfuls can end up making you feel like you've done about a hundred pushups is beyond me.

But it was pretty anyway. Watching it snow yesterday was great.

And NOW we can go sledding!