ShortDays of Celeste

Did I say I was looking forward to shoveling snow? I may have overstated that a bit. I shoveled, all right. Several tons of heavy, wet snow that had piled up to a good six inches overnight. I have a system. First I do the porch and the bit of walk to the driveway. Then I make a path to the car and shovel around it so I can remove the snow from it later. Then I shovel a long narrow path down the driveway on one side and up the other side. Then I gradually clear the rest of the driveway, one square at a time. Then I do the end of the driveway, which is always the hardest part. Then I relax by doing the front walk, an easy bit because it's flat and straight. Then I go back and push all the snow off the car, which creates big drifts on either side that have to be reshoveled. I was trying to take advantage of the window of opportunity between the end of the snow and the beginning of more freezing rain, but the rain started sooner and the shoveling took longer, so I got rained on quite a bit and my jacket and gloves are still damp. My hair was bedewed with freezing rain and sticking up on end. I was a sight. I am quite proud of my hand-shoveled, artisanal driveway. Irregularities in the material are a result of our curated organic process. I'll be 69 next week and I still live in the Frost Belt and I can still shovel my own damn driveway. Booyah.

I went out later, and the roads aren't absolutely terrible, except for our street, which never gets plowed so you practically need 4-wheel drive just to go up to the corner. But overall, I didn't do much for the rest of the day. I cleaned up various things that I'd left in a heap when I took off to go to Peru and when I got home. I've almost run out of leftovers, so I cooked myself some dinner: a hamburger, some rice and salad, plus the last of the braised leeks and carrots. It was good. I didn't really have much to eat yesterday, so I needed a meal. I sat with my notebook for awhile. I'm still having trouble writing anything. I can't settle down. Maybe tomorrow. I'm just glad to be home.