Just spent three hours cleaning the driveway–chopping the ice that developed due to a corporate decision we made as a team to let the last two inches of snow remain as a barrier for the sleet that formed a shell on top, and thus allowing us to still get it with the snowblower. Better than freezing rain and sleet turning a clean driveway into a sheet of ice. Once again, we were wrong.
Odd though, that I enjoyed this physical exertion although I do admit to being pretty worn out now from flinging shovelfuls of snow mixed with sand that weighed in at about twenty to twenty-five pounds. Also fixed the mailbox one more time as it was hanging from a snowplow hit sometime during the night. This mailbox, missing its door and cracked along one side will be retired with full honors this year–it’s actually lasted three winters in its battle with the town crew.
Odder still, I did this with an injured knee and yet when I got in the car to run an errand uptown, I had a hard time driving because I couldn’t bend my knee. But I’m built of sturdy stock despite my five-foot, 100-pound self. Meanwhile, my neighbor (who weighs in at about 350) called me one last time this morning after eight calls yesterday complaining about her driveway not being done–it’s a long story, but I have little sympathy, especially since the plow people are the family that just lost the husband and father of five kids. (we did her driveway the first year after her husband died, but our snowthrower doesn’t work on a gravel driveway.) But she was suffering from cabin fever after a day of being housebound; me, I love it.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology