Saturday, February 16, 2008

2/16/2008 How cold is it?

Are you tired of hearing about the weather? It's all they talk about here, but with good cause.

Last night, the sky was crystal clear, the stars were brilliant, the moon was almost full and the moonlight was shining down. Today the sun rose at 6:40am. It's a gorgeous day . . . bright sunshine, beautiful blue sky, a few white whispy clouds in the sky. I walked downtown to check my mailbox and the bank sign flashed 10:20am--sun's been up nearly 4 hours now. Then the bank sign flashed 13. It's THIRTEEN DEGREES! No wonder it felt cold walking! Wowser.

I'm leaving Monday to go to New Hampshire to catch a plane for Texas. I thought I should start shoveling out my car today. It might take a while. The problem with shoveling now is not the shoveling out, it's the shoveling to. Where do you put the snow? Everything around you is high. You feel like you're walking through tunnels. It was hard to shovel last week because I had to lift the shovel filled with snow over my shoulders to get the snow out of the shovel and on the other side of the snow banks that line the driveway. It was some workout. We've had more than 8 inches of snow since then. Now the snow banks are as tall as I am. I actually had to first break the tops off the snow banks and push that snow down the other side so that I could shovel my car out. Now shoveling is not only a physical exercise but also a mental exercise. How do you get that shovel under your car to get the snow out from behind the front tire and yet keep the snow in the shovel while you twist and lift to get it up and over the wall of snow by your side, all while dodging the rear view mirror which has an affinity for bumping your hip? It's quite an interesting activity. I got it shoveled out far enough that I can move the car. I figure tomorrow, I'll back the car out all the way and clean up the mess on either side of where my car was and try to create a bigger snow garage to park in. Fingers crossed, there won't be any more snow and I'll be able to leave on Monday without having to shovel or scrape.