“January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow.”
Early this morning, three or four o’clock early, I could hear the rain falling on the roof. I don’t know when it stopped, but it left a damp, gray day. Off-cape snow is falling, and the world has paused for a bit. No cars are on the road and many stores are closed. Here, life just goes on the same as it does every Friday.
Let’s just call this paragraph an amendment. Snow has started falling. The flakes are huge and being blown all over by the wind. I didn’t get to my feeders yesterday so I have to brave the snow and cold today. My birds will be disappointed if there is no seed.
We used to stick our tongues out to catch snowflakes. We’d also grab some snow with our mittens and lick it as if it were ice cream. A snow storm back then was never an inconvenience. It was an opportunity. It was a get the sleds out or make a snow fort day. Snowball fights decided who kept the hill. The winners usually overran the losers and pelted them with an arsenal of snowballs. A little extra money could always be gotten by shoveling out a house. The trick was to wait a bit and then ask at the houses still not shoveled. Most times old ladies came to the door. We’d dicker the price then I’d shovel the steps and the walkway. By the time I got home, I was frozen and covered in snow, but I was also rich by a few dollars.
I don’t shovel. I’m now one of those proverbial old ladies. Skip, my factotum, plows my driveway and shovels the walkway and the mailbox. I don’t even own a shovel any more. The last time we had snow it was a dusting, and I used my broom to clear the walkway. The two, the dusting and the broom, were perfect together.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Snow, Snowball fight
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
January 21, 2011 at 12:47 pm
No snow is falling here and the predictions says we won´t have any the coming ten days either 🙂 It´s cold at nights and rather warm during days, just like it usually is in November or early spring.
I don´t shovel any longer either. I just walk the few yards I have to my gate a couple of times and then I´m finished 🙂 But I do use my broom on the stairs, I have fallen down stairs one to many times now 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
January 21, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Christer,
That snow lasted for about ten minutes. The sun came out later, but it is really cold right now.
I’m with you in falling down stairs too many times. One was really bad, and I was injured, but the rest were just falls down the stairs.
January 21, 2011 at 11:24 pm
After 35 years of carrying mail on foot routes I consider not having a cleared walk or porch a worse sin than matricide. I make sure to be out and clearing the snow an hour before the mailman’s scheduled to arrive.
I get our drive and walk, the front, streetside walk from our corner to the corner at the other end of the block, then I’ll do the walk and drive of the grass widow in the middle of the block. After finishing that I’ll plow our the drive of the neighbor across the street, the walks of the next two on that side, and then the walk and the drive of the other grass widow down the block. Then I finish up with a path leading through the yard from my front porch to the neighbor’s as a short-cut for the mailman.
No, I’m no male equivalent of Saint Eulalia. With the invention of the snow blower I actually enjoy doing it. I take my time. I’ve nowhere to go. It’s just enough exercise without being too much, and all my working neighbors just don’t have the time to do it. Now that Sandy’s retired, she does our steps and stoops and we go back in for fresh coffee, The Trib, and a feeling of accomplishment.
January 22, 2011 at 12:51 am
I don´t have to do much here because the mailbox is over hundred yards from my home, so neither the mailman or the newspaperman comes close 🙂 and I doubt they ever get out of their cars to deliver anything either 🙂
But I di want to have clean stairs for myself.
January 22, 2011 at 11:28 am
John,
Mine is a rural route so enough snow must be cleared so Bill, my mailman, can fit his truck in and out. I used to do it myself but find hiring someone to do it and my driveway is far better. There are no sidewalks on most streets here on the cape so that is never a problem. The town plows the bike path. My brother-in-law loves his snow blower and meanders and does friends and neighbors.
January 22, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Kat,
I can imagine your sciatica after a shoveling session!
January 21, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Me, The Snow Blower and a 24 & 22 year old
The Toro provides excellent service but the dispute in our household revolves around the responsibility and timing When the snow arrives I clear it within a short period subject to the decency of hours or weekends or whatever. Participation by my houseguests (ok kids) is strictly to their schedule and convenience (I will do it in the evening but I wont get up early)….move out I say, a statement that I will probably regret.
January 21, 2011 at 7:22 pm
My Dear Hedley,
My sister’s husband has some sort of a super duper snow blower, and he loves using it-even does the neighbors. In my younger days, I never minded shoveling and remember when we had nearly 3 feet of snow. It took forever to make a path.
My dad had a heart attack when he was 65, just after shoveling. I’m careful.
January 21, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Many years ago when I was shoveling my driveway for the 3rd big storm that week, it occurred to me that I was old enough to have a teenager that should be doing this for me. Since I didn’t have one, it would be okay to rent one so I found myself a plowing service. I feel no guilt.
January 21, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Hi Caryn,
I love your entry.
I never have guilt when I hire somebody. My house cleaners, who come every two weeks, were here today. Skip does a multitude of chores for me. This time of year, he puts up and takes down the Christmas lights, helps put the tree in the stand and takes it away when it is time. I have my lawn cut every summer. I am a woman of leisure.
January 21, 2011 at 6:27 pm
It was a bonanza for us kids to compete to shovel driveways, walkways, sidewalks to the mailboxes. WOW! I remember those days and we made money. People even called us before it snowed to reserve our services so they knew they could drive out in the morning. Some mornings we were up at 3am, Dad set all the alarms. IT was a money making winter and those went on for two or three years. Great memories!
January 21, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Z&Me,
I wasn’t so eager that I’d get up at 3:30, but I did get out right after breakfast. I always felt wealthy after a snow storm.
January 21, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Here in Toronto we didn’t get much snow, but I am glad to be going home to Texas where we declare a holiday when it snows. And, it usually melts by the afternoon so we don’t have to shovel the stuff.
January 21, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Bob,
I’m a bit jealous that yours disappears in an afternoon. Ours just sits by the side of the road until spring.
January 22, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Looking at the temperatures around Austin area lately, I’m not sure any snow that fell there would necessarily be gone.
January 22, 2011 at 1:06 pm
John,
My sciatica is a new phenomenon since the surgery, and nearly 3 months later I still have a bad leg. After I went grocery shopping and carried in the bags, the pain was awful and kept me awake, tossing and turning until the magic of Tylenol kicked in.
My mind can’t fathom the results of shoveling.