Mother Nature played one of her infamous practical jokes on my geographic area last night. Our driveway had only twelve to fourteen inches of snow on it this morning, whereas areas north and to the west of us received greater amounts. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, we lost power and had plenty of company. Fortunately, the outside temperature was in the low thirties, so our residence was able to hold a sixty-five degree interior temperature throughout the power outage, which lasted about nine to ten hours. Grumpy Kitty knew it was a bit chilly and took refuge in the plump sofa cushions that she knows she is not to be on. I looked the other way and she knew that, too. Smart, Grumpy Kitty.
My SO and another gentleman from our neighborhood helped an elderly man get his rear-wheel drive Caddy unstuck and back home into his garage. SO then took off in Beast, so named because it is not a green vehicle but comes in very handy when moving children's belongings OR pulling unfortunate souls out of the deep snow. I decided to shovel 'just a wee bit o'snow and set out with my trusty shovel.
Today's snow is heavy-laden with moisture and I could only scoop what looked like one spoonful at a time. At first, my goal was just a small area at the top of the driveway, but when I reached that goal I thought, "Oh, just a wee bit more." and so on and so on until I was nearly finished. Suddenly I realized that with just a few more tiny scoopfuls I would have the job completed. Along the way I had a snowplow angel who was plowing our street and after three swoops past our driveway, the end was totally plugged......about four feet high and about four feet deep. During one of his swoops he rolled down his pickup window and said, "Sorry", in his broken English. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. A little while later, he came back with his blade and completely cleaned out the end of my driveway. What an angel! I told him he was my hero and offered him as many cookies as he'd like. He smiled broadly and said, "I take two!" and off he went.
He is my hero for today. He saved me many more heavy spoonfuls.
Ancora imparo
