After church and the congregation's annual meeting, we returned home to find a high ridge of snow across the driveway entrance, plus about four inches of new snow. I "snew blew" again. Carmen backed into the garage, and the front wheel drive had trouble pushing the RAV4 over the packed snow left by the thrower. I also had to push. So I got out the snow shovel and scraped the driveway and sidewalk down to bare concrete. The whole neighborhood was out shoveling and operating snow removal machines. We bonded.
By Sunday evening I had drawn the outline of the donkey flats for the Christmas pageant and had it approved by the director/ producer/ minister. Snow was still pouring out of the sky when we went to bed.
Monday morning I snew blew and scraped again before Carmen set out for work, salting more for traction than for any hope of keeping them clear. I looked at the walkway from the front sidewalk up the steps and around the grassy knoll to the front porch. There were deep depressions in it from the newspaper delivery to inside the front storm door that morning. I felt bad for him and the postal person, but the path could not be cleared of its foot of snow by a Sno-Thro, and would take a long time with twentieth century wide-thing-on-a-stick technology - more time than I had. I got Carmen off to work, showered, changed and got myself off to work.
You'll remember I had some trepidation about working with Vinnie. Well, we had a fine day together. He imparted a lot of his hard-won wisdom about the job, and was very patient with my nearly complete lack of knowledge.
By the end of my workday Monday, the parking lot in front of the store was in need of a touch-up, so I snow shoveled the critical areas (as outlined by my buddy Vinnie) before I went home to start again on the critical areas at the house. I saw no evidence that anyone had muscled through the foot and a half of snow to the porch. No mail today. I guessed I'd better get it cleared. And yes, it did take a long time. Once again, I salted all areas for traction. Carmen had no trouble backing in.Tuesday morning was the same routine. I blew and scraped for almost an hour, showered and changed for work, and shoveled the parking lot at the store. Snow was still pouring. Back home, same thing. Seven solid days of snow dumping on us, and still going.
Wednesday morning I got started earlier than usual. The plumber was coming at 8:00 to (FINALLY !) hook up the sink and toilet upstairs. When I looked outside I went into shock! There was nothing falling from the sky. So I scraped and salted the concrete surfaces as usual, then dug a trench across the back yard to Cheryl's back door. I hadn't been in to check on things in well over a week. All was well. I figured, while I was there, I'd read her gas meter, since she had asked me for a reading every month since September. So I came back, got out of my snowy boots and such, and wrote Cheryl an email describing my care of her sidewalk and my report on the gas reading etc. While I was attaching pictures to the email, I saw my inbox gain a "1" indicating that a new message had come in. So I sent the one to Cheryl, and the inbox appeared complete with a message from Cheryl asking me to "tunnel over to the house and get a gas meter reading." I thought it was funny, anyway. Oh, and by then it had started snowing AGAIN!
Wednesday at work was all about deliveries. The truck came in as I approached - Wednesday is its usual day - and there are usually items on the truck that customers have been waiting for, so Wednesday afternoon is pretty much a deliveries kind of day. I'm pretty much the delivery boy. So, Vinnie and I got things sorted out for four deliveries, loaded the van and were ready to go by 2:00. We set out into the pouring snow, and immediately blew off the delivery deep into Amish country many miles away. We got stuck in the first place we went, sacrificing a sand bag to the traction gods. The second place I never would have found on my own - a huge industrial complex out in the hinterlands. Vinnie had to call the guy to find out where we needed to go. The third place was the Red Lobster restaurant near the Walmart, where a contractor was working. There were some things Diane needed from Staples right nearby, and the last stop was at the Valu Home Center for more sandbags. Winter, after all, has only just begun.
Wednesday evening was snow blowing and shoveling again. That night, the snow stopped, and to date, I have not shoveled anything since Thursday morning - that's forty eight whole hours now!
Thursday we both had days off. I loaded and ran the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen. Carmen started work on her Sunday sermon. Our little girl Lucia had a vet appointment at 1:30, so we dashed out to do some shopping in the late morning before taking her in for her next round of shots and such. Then we pretty much came home and made ready for the "6:59er" pot luck at church. There we ate, sang carols and I danced with Miriam until she fell and broke her pelvis. Yes, it's all fun and games until somebody falls and breaks a pelvis.
Yesterday I did my monthly volunteering at the Soup Kitchen before I went to work. Once there, Diane was telling me about how I would be putting away stuff from Wednesday's truck - until Vinnie reminded her of three pending deliveries. So I loaded the van and set out on my first solo delivery adventure. I only made two wrong turns, which I thought was a pretty good first try. The last stop was where Jim Snyder works. He was on the search committee that brought us here, and he's a mover and shaker with the Community Theatre. He was standing right there when I brought in the stuff. "Well," he said, "you're in the history books now. You took down Miriam."
SO! Today I must must must get to work on my critters! The ox head needs much more papier mache, and the donkey flats need to be cut out and painted and assembled into a double-sided rolling donkey. Enough ruminating, I must get fabricating!
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