First Wintery Walk: January 16, 2007

After my delicious and warm oatmeal breakfast, I left for my first day of school. I left some of the heavier stuff out of my bookbag. I borrowed (at Jody's recommendation) a pair of "yak trackers" from MRM. I have no idea if I spelled that correctly, but that's what I heard when they called them by name. They are grippers that attach to the outside of your shoe and give you traction. Jode recommended them for my first walk in the snow.

I got outside and the streets were so well plowed you could see asphalt! The street was very busy with traffic and pedestrians. I walked past the same 3 kids waiting for their bus that I had seen on Friday. It was actually a very easy walk. I wasn't sure if I was on sidewalk or not but it was flat snow and there were other footprints ahead of me, so I just kept walking. It was actually very uneventful. I was very grateful for uneventful. I tried to be extra appreciative of the fact that there was no wind and no ice. In fact, the sun was shining! It was a beautiful day!

I wish I could've taken a picture. I hope to see this device again and I will photograph it then. As I crossed the bridge and neared the Education Center, I saw what looked like a mini front loader but it had a chimney on top and snow was spewing out of it. It was headed toward me on the sidewalk and I didn't know who had right of way or what the protocol was. But then he pulled over into a driveway and signalled for me to come ahead so I did. In the front of his frontloader was some kind of spinning device. It looked like a horizontal auger but I'm not sure. Apparently, the spinning thing picks the snow up off the sidewalk and then it blows it up and out of the chimney. The driver can control the direction of the spray. The whole thing was the width of the sidewalk. It was a sidewalk snowplow!