Digging out

Well, this morning we dug ourselves out. We spent about 45+ minutes this morning digging out our sidewalks and driveway, and also some of the sidewalks belonging to the older lady next door. (We didn't do all of hers, because she pays a neighbourhood boy to clear them, and we didn't want to take his job. He wasn't home this morning, though, so we cleared enough that she could get to the street if she needed to.) I'm not sure exactly how much snow we got, but it went up over the top of my sorels. (Sorels are honking big snow boots. Mine are rated to -30C, and go up to my knees.) When I was shovelling out the neighbours walk (that was the part I did, all three of us split up the work), I don't think the level of snow ever got below a foot.

I was a bit peeved at Bob though... I felt like shovelling before my shower (so I could have my shower when I was all hot and sweaty), but Bob said that we should wait before going out. I didn't want him to feel rushed (which he would have if I had gone out and started shovelling), so I went up to have my shower, and mom called a friend to see how she was doing. While my mom and I were occupied, Bob SNUCK OUT and started *shovelling*!!! Sneaky little mutter, mutter, mutter! Mom told me while I was still in the shower, and then went out too. I hurried out too, but that meant I was shovelling with wet hair! Aargh! And it wasn't all that warm out. (Right now the thermometer says it's -17C, and the wind is blowing too.) And since I was the last out, I didn't get a nice shovel either. Normally we have enough shovels, but only two are ergonomic shovels, one is an ergonomic snow pusher, a fourth is a regular snow pusher, and the rest are basically garden shovels and stuff. There was way too much snow to use a snow pusher style shovel, so I ended up with an aluminum garden style shovel. I really had to bend over to do that. Grrr. And I couldn't get very much snow per shovel. Hence, I only did part of the neighbours walk, while my mom did all of ours, and Bob did the whole driveway. I just couldn't move very fast. Plus I was the last one out. Oh well... at least I got some exercise.

Instead of doing our regular grocery shopping as planned, we just got essentials at a closer store that only required main roads once we were out of our neighbourhood. We wouldn't have made it at all, but one of the neighbours had a snowblower (well, actually his parents a few blocks away did, so he went out and shovelled them out, then snowblowed his way back) and he cleared the back lane. On the way back in, we still had to get out and push where our front street has a bit of a hill.

I'm all out of breath now (my asthma is acting up, pushing cars in the cold), so I'll read for a bit before potting up some of my ficus cuttings.

I hope you're having fun too. :) Oh... and Happy New Year!