Snow Equals Exercise

This afternoon I went outside with Sadie and Valerie and set out to clear the driveway of the first 4 or 5 inches of fluffy powder.  Sadie wanted a shovel, so I got her the collapsible car shovel, just her size.  Valerie just kind of wandered around, admiring the snow.  Sadie spent most of her time “helping” with shoveling snow.  At one point the two of them discovered the turtle sandbox.  Someone else had used it and left the cover off, so it ended up being like a mini ice rink.  Before I went to the store, I put the toys in it and put the cover on as best I could with the toys holding it up.  figured why make it worse.  Well, the girls went at it like it was a dig site, brushing the snow off and unearthing the turtle to lift the cover.  Cute.

The gal on the third floor had dug a path from the cellar door to the street earlier.  She saw me and came out to help.  I decided to discount that she had heard the landlord would be having it plowed, as that has always been expressly not his policy, so I did the awkward end of the driveway, she did the rest, and by the time we were done there was an inch of snow in the places we’d started.

Deb came out and got Valerie partway through, before I got insistent that she go in because I thought she was too cold.  Sadie persisted in staying out there with me the entire couple hours and rebelled when it was time to go in.  She should have gone in sooner, but it was a lesson for her about knowing when she is getting cold and what it feels like to be prickly warming up.  She was sorely disappointed when she could not climb the mountain of snow against the garage.  Too fluffy.

I could have sworn I felt the snow getting damper while I was out there, maybe even a bit of sleet.  When we went in, Deb had heard them saying it was turning, so I was right.

I figured I’d go out again sometime after 8:00 when it was approaching done, do some more and get the rubbish out to the side of the street.  I ended up waiting until my pumpkin bread was done (or close enough to turn off the oven and let it slowly finish).  The lady downstairs was working on the street end of the driveway and part of a path, and had the first barrel out near the street.  We each took one of the others.  I finished the path, cleared where the barrels go behind the building, widened the path, gave the driveway a wide opening rather than a barely one car can pass opening, widened what she’d done, added a couple feet clear behind her car, and from there to the steps widened the path almost to car width.  I also made the trash barrels as accessible as possible to the trash guys, who will have a hard enough time in the morning.

She’d planned it all out so the third floor guy, who was at work delivering pizzas in this mess, could park in the clear area in front of her and she could get around him and out if she had to leave first.  He arrived home just after I came in and parked in his normal spot, where it was unshoveled.  I was amused but not surprised, and had almost gone ahead and dug him a spot for that reason (though it turned out there wouldn’t have been time).  Deb figures he saw where she had dug and thought “someone else dug that spot, I can’t take it,” in an entirely different set of logic from hers.

The lady downstairs also reminded me I ought to have parked up along the side of the driveway to save shoveling way to the back.  Rather than thinking it was great that we’d gotten ahead of the shoveling (apparently we had about 14 inches officially) so there’d be less on the second pass, she thought it was a waste because “it just has to be done again.” Odd.  After she arrived home to a clear driveway she didn’t have to touch until later.

I was pleased that I still had the ability to settle in and go like a machine for a couple hours.

After I came in from tonight’s touchup, we were talking about what an odd tick it is that I like to shovel snow just so.  That is, neat sides, thoroughly clean within reason, wide opening, and so forth.

If we’re lucky, the kids will sleep well tonight after being outside a while.  I know I should.

Pumpkin bread?  Yup, from an actual pumpkin.  The other day I cooked a larger pumpkin, which produced about 5 1/2 cups of pulp, which turned into 5 heaping cups.  Two went into breads tonight and three went into the freezer.  Came out good.  My first attempt was the best I’d ever had.  This is perhaps second best, and more similar to what my grandmother produces that the first attempt.

Okay, back hurts and I should go to bed.

Posted by on 12/13 at 10:59 PM

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