Still Here, Still Shoveling

I was on my way to bed when I realized that I hadn't posted anything since Wednesday. I spent most of Thursday dealing with the latest snowstorm, which left about six inches of heavy, wet snow in our immediate area. All the forecasts said the snow would turn to rain, so I started shoveling around noon in anticipation of the transition, expecting it to be raining by the time I'd finished.

I was about half done when I noticed that it had started snowing much harder, and that the flakes were much larger than usual. By the time I'd finished, everything I'd shoveled was already covered over again. In fact, I ended up going back out a couple of hours later and doing everything a second time. After that I had to go out two more times to clear the bottom of the driveway after plow passes (no sign of the helpful neighbor this time). By that point it was indeed raining, not that it mattered or did me any good.

Of course everything froze overnight, so I went out today to have a look and see if there was any ice I could clear away. I noticed that our next-door neighbors had cleared their front sidewalk of ice right up to the property line, so I figured I should do the same. At first I had to break off chunks with the edge of the shovel, but eventually I was able to slide the shovel under the ice and bring it up in pieces and slabs.

When I'd worked my way all the way across to our neighbors on the other side, I got to work on our driveway, which in some places had an inch of ice going back to last Saturday, when we got a small amount of snow that I had cleared only half-heartedly. By the time I'd finished with everything, including the front steps, more than three hours had passed. (I had paused in the middle to walk the dog.)

So that's where I've been most of the past two days. And lucky us, another storm is coming through Saturday evening and night. Earlier in the week the forecasts were saying this one was going to miss us, or maybe just leave a dusting; now the predictions for this area are ranging from four to eight inches, so I know what I'll be doing Sunday.