It Snowed Overnight - Shoveling Might be Tricky

Today will be my first day back at the shop since my surgery. Of course, it's been snowing overnight, and I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier than a water jug. That's going to make clearing the front and back of the store difficult. I probably can do it in small increments, but I can't really throw the snow effectively onto the sides of the walkways. *sigh* No choice. I'll bring my power shovel along with me, that might be helpful. 

I will have to be very careful about my movements as I clear 
the snow away from the front and rear of the store. I don't 
want to strain or tear any of the surgical sutures internal or 
external. My power shovel should help a lot with that, but 
it won't do everything for me. 

But it's 3:45 am and I've been up for an hour. I think all of this lazing around and sleeping here and there over the past two days has maxed me out on sleep. I'll probably regret the sleep loss tonight when I fade, but that's then, and I have a long day ahead of me before I get there. I charged up the batteries for my power shovel overnight, so I have two freshly charged batteries ready for it. Now if I can just remember how to turn it on LOL - it's a little tricky. 

I have a power shovel similar to this, although mine 
is green and a different brand. I'm not expecting too 
much from it - mine was a very inexpensive Taiwan 
knock-off that arrived in the poorest packing job I've 
ever seen before for an overseas shipment. Still, you 
get what you pay for, right? I didn't pay much! LOL

I was going to make some soup yesterday, but simply didn't have the energy. I lazed around all day. My doctor phoned in the early afternoon, confirming that they had removed a malignant tumor of approximately 10mm diameter from my right breast, but that everything else tested out negative. I see her again in a bit over two weeks. Claire will accompany me again - she's been an amazing, wonderful friend. 

We had been hoping my tumor would be in the 6mm-8mm 
size range, but it turned out to be 10mm, so in the next 
category. I deal with beads and mm sizing all the time, I'm 
rather staggered to think that my tumor was 10mm big! 

So, despite the fact that I'm up at almost 4:00 am when I wanted to sleep until 6:00 am, I'm considering this to be a win. A decade or more ago, it would have been a death sentence. Medicine has come a long way with breast cancer in the intervening decades, and I totally approve of the strides that have been made. I'm off to the shop today, and to figure out how to use my power shovel - LOL. Have an excellent Saturday, I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

It Was a Wet and Heavy Snow

The snow is finally done and cleaned up. It was a typical Spring snow - wet and very heavy. DH dragged the snow blower from the garage to get the driveway cleared yesterday, while I shoveled the walkways. It was a miserable job, but we got it all done. The next door neighbor lady was struggling with her shoveling, but when we were done and looked over, she was nowhere to be seen, so we shrugged, put the snow blower back into it's home in the garage, and continued with our day. 

DH immediately pulled out the snow blower yesterday, and 
that made all the difference. It was a wet, heavy snow, and 
it was still a mess to take care of. But it was SO much easier 
than shoveling the driveway. 

When I got home in the evening, I saw her back outside tackling the driveway once again. I told DH I was going to go and give her a hand with the shoveling before coming into the house, he shrugged, and off I went, shovel in hand. It turned out to not be my neighbor, Colleen, but their house/dog sitter Hannah. My guess is they are on a quick Easter vacation - maybe to visit their daughter at college in Michigan. But Hannah was glad of the help. The snow was VERY waterlogged and extremely heavy, and had a nice frozen crust that needed to be broken through to get down to the concrete driveway. I let her deal with the slope - it was a bit icy and she's considerably younger than I am. I tackled the plow scree, which was heinous, but I managed to get that cleared out for her. Good deed done - LOL. 

There's nothing much worse than snow plow scree, that 
snow that gets kicked up on the right side of the blade. 
It's wet, heavy, and pushes a long way into any driveway. 
It's a PITA to shovel or snow blow. 

It was slow at the shop yesterday. I put it totally on the weather. The snow had stopped falling, but the streets were in the process of edge to edge clearing, and my landlord was just finishing clearing the parking lot with his CAT when I arrived in the morning. I'd say we got about 5 inches from that storm - depending on location. It was a typical Spring snow - very moisture laden, so very VERY heavy. 

Our shop landlord has a lot of different heavy equipment, but 
he loves using his CAT. He gets a lot of use from it in the 
winters, using it to clear the back parking lot at the shop so that 
customers can get into the four businesses in my little 
group of stores. He does a good job, too. He's been a great 
landlord over the years. 

I started building a snow wall at the shop when I shoveled there, but I'm fairly sure it will melt again before the next storm comes through - if we even have another snow. We're late into the winter now, and snow is at a point where it will be sporadic, heavy, but melted quickly. I'm pushing for the melting part - LOL - although our trees desperately need that moisture. So, I'm off to the swimming pool. Have a fabulous Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Winter Has Arrived - A Tale of Shoveling and Snowblowers (and One Stupid Driver)

Winter is definitely here. We got about 5-7 inches of snow yesterday, depending on where in the Metro area you were. DH kept putting off and putting off shoveling, while I, at the shop, was shoveling every two hours or so. DH was funny, though. He finally shoveled enough to back the truck out and pull the snowblower out, then started to snow blow. His progress report was as follows: 

This was my snow wall by mid-afternoon - probably 
around 2:00 pm or so. Ir was already a good two feet 
high, and would gain another six inches before I closed 
for the night. Here's the left side ...

"After 4 shovel fulls I cursed the blower and finally managed to get it started. Made one pass and it died again, and wouldn't start. Then I really cursed it and got it going again and managed to finish. You can come home to me now Baby." 

And here's the right side. There's a totally open area between 
the two walls for customer access to the sidewalk. I learned 
to build my walls many years ago. When the plows go 
through, the wall protects my shoveled sidewalk and keeps 
my clean-up work minimal. All of the other businesses 
around me shovel to the street and end up with plow scree 
every time the plows pass. Stupid people! 

I had to laugh at that. I, in the meantime, was shoveling at the shop. I was out shoveling my walkway and building my walls all day, starting at around noon. By close to the end of the day, I had very respectable walls set up. I also took time towards the end of the day to brush off my car and Chickie's car so that we could get going quickly when we shut down for the night. 

Here you can see the stuck car. When she first got stuck, she 
was directly across from my shop. The cop, with the help 
of another guy, tried to push her backward to get her off the 
median rear-end first, but the base of the sign she snapped 
off was too high, and was hitting her undercarriage. So 
the cop told her to call a tow truck and he left, after 
spending more than 1/2 hour with her. Eventually she was 
gone. I spent quite a lot of time looking at this comedy 
of errors, but eventually had to return to my work, so missed 
her car finally getting freed from straddling the median. 

In mid-afternoon, when I took the photos in today's blog, we noticed a black sedan on the median of our main roadway that runs in front of the store. There was also a "break-off" traffic sign face down in the south-bound lane of traffic (the sedan was facing north). A police car drove up, and he spent at least 1/2 hour with the woman driver, first to pick up the sign and get it out of traffic, but then to see if there was any way to get her car off the median and back into traffic. Even with the help of another motorist, it didn' happen. Finally she went to the coffee shop - presumably to call a tow truck - and the cop left, after giving her a ticket because she had creamed the sign, after all. 

Eventually the car was no longer there, so I assume she was able to finally get off straddling the median without tearing the bottom of her sedan out. I expect it might be a knarly repair bill, however. I'm glad I bought my Mazda with the full knowledge that I have almost a foot of ground clearance in case I ever do something that stupid. On that note, I'm out of here. The pool is calling and the snow is no longer falling (although our temperatures should be falling for most of the day). Have an excellent Wednesday and final day of November. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Life Is Returning To Normal and Shoveling Will Be Necessary

Last night I had the first real meal I've had since I got my braces put on November 2nd. I actually had a small salad (I do chop the lettuce leaves a bit smaller, but still - I missed my nightly salad), also small bowls of roasted butternut squash and some roasted heirloom carrots (cut small since carrots are a tough veggie to chew and digest sometimes). I also actually cut my chicken instead of mincing it. I'm ridiculously pleased that I was able to eat everything easily. Of course I cleaned my teeth like crazy afterward because braces catch everything and I'm trying to eliminate the possibility of dental cavities for my future. 

Apparently there is a "Real Food" movement. Who knew? 
It looks pretty similar to my WildFit dies - lots of natural 
foods, but the Real Food movement also allows for some 
processed foods like breads and cheeses which I don't 
allow into my personal diet. Still, it can't possibly harm 
people if they returned to a more sensible way of 
interacting with food. 

We were hoping to stream a show on Egyptian archaeology last night, but it's unavailable for another week or two. So he ended up playing Bridge on his phone and cursing at the game constantly, and I ended up solving puzzles on mine, while some stupid program played in the background that we both ignored. I think I was asleep within a minute of my head hitting the pillow. 

I realized this morning that the other 
skin suit I purchased was the 
Leopard Shark, not the Tiger Shark 
I had posted yesterday. So I have spots, 
not stripes today. It's a lovely suit, a bit 
heavier material than the Sea Turtle, so it's 
nice and cozy for those cold mornings. 

Today is the final swimming day for the week, and I'm wearing the Leopard Shark skin suit today. It fits like a dream and it's a bit thicker fabric than the Sea Turtle I was wearing yesterday. I'll get a lot of use from both of them. It'll be nice to be away from the chlorine for a few days, though. It always plays havoc with my skin, actually causing the skin of my fingers to crack open sometimes which can be quite painful. Still, that's not enough to make me quit swimming. I love the sport too much to let those minor inconveniences and pains to stop me from being in the pool three days a week. 

I was worried that I would have to build snow shoveling 
into my very busy day yesterday, but it didn't snow at all 
after DH shoveled in the morning. However, glancing out 
today, I'll have to shovel either before leaving for the 
gym, or right after I return from there. It doesn't look 
like much, but we're diving down into very cold temps 
today too, so it's going to stick around. 

It looks like I might have a little shoveling to do this morning before I leave. It'll depend on whether it's actively snowing, or if it looks like it'll stay clear for an hour or two. If clear, I'll shovel. If it's snowing, I'll probably blow it off until just before I leave for the shop. I'd rather not shovel it twice if I can help it. 

We've had a Black Friday sale for decades. It's the one 
time of the year when we have deep discounts across 
the board (except for our antique Native American 
silver and turquoise jewelry). With that small 
exception, absolutely everything else in the store is 
deep discounted. We'll have to see how we do this 
year, but I'm bracing for a disappointing numbers. 

So, have a fabulous Thursday. I'll be working on my Black Friday/Small Business Saturday sale email and sending that out to my list today. Sales have been very disappointing and DH is very unhappy. Me? I knew this was coming. If we had closed when I wanted, we wouldn't be dealing with this added stress. He'll be out shopping for a turkey today, though. Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK! OMG! I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Yesterday It Snowed - Ick! I Think Winter Has Finally Arrived

Yesterday's first snow was a good reminder of what winter holds in store for us. We had at least three inches by the time it was finished, and had to shovel several times at the shop. Although we expected to get more snow overnight, I wasn't seeing any real white when I looked into the front yard when I awakened, so maybe we missed that one. That would be great since today is a swimming day and that's always a bit tighter schedule than non-swim days. 

It's nice when I wake up early on swimming 
days. My schedule for those days is very 
tight, and if I have to shovel, it gets even 
more difficult. The doors unlock at 5:00 am, 
and I need to be in the water already no later 
than 5:10 am. Shoveling can add up to 30 
minutes of extra necessary work before I can 
head to the Y, so early is better. 

I spent yesterday at the computer in the shop, entering and changing some inventory that needed updating and packing some product we'd sold out of over the weekend. The first snow day is always a really slow day, and yesterday was no exception. I had three customers through the door, two who were looking around, and one who purchased a couple of small things to repair some pieces she had. It was NOT a day to write home about. 

We're far from empty, but we are low on stock in 
some items, and we didn't restock our jewelry 
or Native American-made products in advance of 
the holiday season this year. We'll deal with what 
we have and that will have to make do. 

DH spent his day in the back doing the book work and finally felt cold enough by mid-day to set up his space heater. So he was warm. I wasn't stupid - I had leggings on under my dress, and had my shop sweater on over it with a turtleneck under it. We keep the shop cool because our customers are walking in wearing their winter coats, but it means we, as the staff, need to dress warmly. Hopefully I guessed right with the clothes I packed for today. It's hard to predict what our weather or temperatures will do. 

I really liked the Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato 
soup recipe I first tried several weeks ago. It's 
easy to make and it's very tasty. I think I'll make 
another batch of that tomorrow, and maybe add 
some ground sausage or something similar to it 
for a bit of protein. I also had DH pickup salad 
yesterday. I'll chop it into smaller pieces and 
should be able to eat it for dinner. I've missed 
my salad since I've been dealing with my new 
braces. 

I'm looking forward to tomorrow already. I think I'll make that Roasted Peppers and Tomatoes soup again. That was one of my favorites, and it's a lovely thing for colder weather. It goes together relatively quickly too. I'll add the ingredients to my shopping list for tomorrow and enjoy the smell of roasting peppers filling my house tomorrow after I'm finished with my morning errands. 

I love the aroma when I'm roasting the red peppers 
for the soup. It's spicy, but not harsh, and it fills 
the kitchen with tasty promises. 

So, I'm getting this wrapped up early. I awakened at 2:30 am, and instead of rushing, decided I might as well stay up, have a relaxing meditation and then dive into my day. Consider my day started now, and I'll be off to the gym in less than an hour for my first swim of the week. I still might have to shovel a little bit if we got some windblown snow, so I have to make sure I have the time to do that before leaving for the gym. Have an excellent Tuesday and Slava Ukraini. 

I Shoveled Snow - A Lot - and Thoughts About Choices and Paths

I certainly had my opportunity to do shoveling for my exercise yesterday, and I started today out shoveling yet again. My best estimate is that we got approximately 6-7 inches of snow from this storm. I shoveled twice yesterday, 45 minutes each time, and had at least three inches of snow on the driveway this morning to get rid of, which took me 1-1/2 hours of work. I didn't do the plow scree this morning - simply didn't have the strength to deal with it, but DH awakened early and pulled out the snow blower to take care of the scree. Now he's in the shower defrosting, and I'm getting ready to get to the shop. 

We have a snowblower similar to this one. I'm usually 
shoveling because I don't know how to operate it. I 
probably should have used it this morning, but apparently 
DH actually had to back the truck out of the garage 
to get the blower out for the plow scree. I'm grateful 
he did, though. The plow scree was too heavy for me, and 
it would have added another hour to my shoveling time. 

Apparently yesterday was quite busy at the shop, at least until the snow began falling. Since this is the Frozen Northlands, and we are used to snow, I hope that we will be busy again today, since the storm has now passed us and we should have nicer weather. Of course everyone will be busy digging out, but once that's accomplished, why not come over to my place to shop? LOL

I love a lot of the aspects of winter. I especially 
love the silence that a blanket of snow puts over 
the city. The usual traffic and daily activity 
noise is muffled and nature's voice predominates. 

I love the sound-dampening effect of snow. The growl of cars becomes a soft "whoosh", and even the grumble of the snow plows only seems like a distant rumble, even when it is passing quite near. I would love living up here if I could wave a magic wand and have the snow shoveling automatically taken care of. That would be a worthwhile wish for any genie I might find in a long-lost bottle. I don't mind the exercise, but between shoveling here and at the shop, I'll have been shoveling for more than two hours today - not my favorite thing to do. Of course I listen to books or music while I shovel, but still ... Well, it's a minor thing to kvetch about, all things considered. 

For those of you who may not speak Yiddish, here's 
the definition of kvetch. Sometimes a word of 
Yiddish can replace 100 words of English. 

I've started receiving holiday cards from friends and family. It's always such fun when they arrive and I get to catch up a bit with old friends. My "cousin" Missy texted me yesterday wondering if everything was all right. Apparently my holiday card this year wasn't as "upbeat" as usual. I didn't feel that at all. I think, with Covid and everything else going on around the world, it is good to remember that changes in plan are just another road, and that they are not a dead-end, but a path which will also bring joy and fulfillment. Still, interpretations can vary. I consider my card still upbeat, and told her that nothing at all was wrong. You, when you get my card, can make up your own minds. 

Often life presents us with choices - different paths 
we can take. We all make those choices, and we live 
with the consequences or benefits of our decisions. 
The choice is neither good nor bad, it is the actions 
taken after the choice has been made that will 
determine that. 

So I'm signing off for today. I know I'll have to shovel at the shop, and I'd still like to relax a bit before opening the shop to the "teeming hordes".  Have an excellent Saturday and a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday. 

Light, Shipments and Tags - It's All a Lot of Work

DH had a very busy morning yesterday. He did a little bit of shoveling on the driveway, clearing away the light snow we got overnight, then, after breakfast, he headed over to the shop, dropped off his things, and headed over to the hardware store to get a new snow rake. By the end of the morning, he had purchased a new snow rake, some large bags of salt for home and shop to help us keep sidewalk ice to a minimum, and another box of fluorescent light bulbs for the shop. 

We have three long rows of these fixtures in the main floor 
of the store, and two long rows of them in the basement level. 
They're not classy, but they give good light. The bulbs 
are eight feet long, very unwieldy to move around easily, 
and the ballasts need to be changed over to a new 
style. We're still in the process of doing that. 

Next week I'll need to take some of our burnt out bulbs back to the hardware store and turn them in for recycling. My neighborhood hardware store isn't in business any more (they retired in early spring - good timing!), so I now have to drive my bulbs to the big-box store for recycling. It'll be a mess, but I'll have to make it work. 

For many years now, we've had a major 
sales event at the end of the year. It's a 
"Thank You" to our customers as well as 
a top-off of cash into our till for the 
year. 

The first day of our year-end mega-sale went quite well. I even was lucky enough to have a customer buy several items of jewelry for his wife, and he didn't even have a coupon, so no discounts on a $700+ sale. Huzzah! That made up for the professional who purchased a lot of antique beads and precious metal components using a coupon - items that would normally NEVER be discounted. 

Each of our one-inch-square price tags 
has to have our computer number, product 
description, part number, country of 
origin and price. Although I can "ditto" 
by line, when I'm entering 1000's 
of tags by hand, it's very time 
consuming. 

Of course, just to add to the mess, we got a major shipment in the door and DH started to receive the items into the computer at the same time that I selling merchandise to customers. We run an ANCIENT and specialized computer system at the shop, and I live each day with fingers crossed that it will live another day. Fortunately, it managed to trudge through, and now I have several days of work generating price tags for each of the items - something that used to be done automatically by our sales and inventory program until it had a hiccup earlier this year. Since that time, price tags have to be generated by hand. *sigh* 

Still, it was a good first day. I also got one more holiday card in the mail when I got home. I'll be going through them and making sure I acknowledge each one late this week or early next. They're all beautiful and I love each and every one of them. They look amazing stretched across my mantle and give me great joy. On that note, I'm off to start cooking breakfast and then head off to the shop. No rest for the weary, it's Day 2 of our three-day sale. As always, please be kind, stay safe, and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Snow and Football Go Together

Today's post will be short and sweet (or not) and fast because we got a bit of snow overnight and I've already heard the plows going down my street. That means I need to shovel before leaving for the gym, and since I've got the WBL gym to visit this morning before my chiro appointment, I've got to shovel quickly before driving 20 minutes distant on iffy roads. It shouldn't be super bad, but I am tight on time. 

I'm not fond of shoveling snow. I don't mine the exercise, but it's more
time out of a crowded early morning schedule. Oh well, no choice
today. 

Yesterday was spent in a day of football and computer nirvana. Plans to get Chinese for dinner were scrapped, and we ate reheated frozen convenience meals instead. It was a laid-back easy-going day that we both desperately needed before diving back into crap like taxes today. Ick. Still, it has to be done. I'll fight with sales tax today, then start working on the W2 and W3 forms that have to be submitted on a very picky website by the end of the month. 

Death and taxes - the two items that are guaranteed in our
lives. Even when we lived in small clusters huddling together
against the elements and wild animals, someone still
collected for the "good" of the group. 

I'm quite pleased that Kansas City made it to the next stage in the playoffs. I'm not really a KC fan, but they won my division, so since the Broncos played horribly this year, I'll cheer on Mahomes and his KC Chiefs. The Tennessee Titans are moving on as well, and, unfortunately, so are the Green Bay Packers (I was cheering for Seattle in that game, but they weren't able to pull it off). So this coming Sunday we get the decisive games - Tennessee vs Kansas City and Green Bay vs San Francisco. One of those four will win the Super Bowl next month. As much as I might prefer Kansas City, I'm secretly hoping Tennessee can pull the game out. I'm also cheering San Francisco onward because ... you know - as a Vikings fan, I just can't support Green Bay. 

Tennessee is in the playoffs for the Divisional
Championship game going head-to-head
against Kansas City this Sunday. Who could
have predicted this one!?! 

So I'm wrapping this up, plugging in photos, and heading out to shovel. Have a truly wonderful day and may all of your dreams come true (or as least your dreams of a nice cup of coffee and five minutes of peace and quiet). I'll be back tomorrow. 

Winter Is Finally Here!

It snowed overnight, as expected. I'm sitting here, knowing I have to shovel in a half-hour, and I'm hearing the wind blow. It's not going to be one of my favorite early mornings. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the USA, I'm hitting two grocery stores today - NOT a smart idea. I'm hoping to hit them early, so hopefully the crowds won't be too intense. There's nothing about a food holiday like Thanksgiving Day that stops my weekly grocery run. I still need lunch stuff for the week ahead. 

I don't think driving on snow is horrible, it's the snow shoveling the driveway
in the wind that I'm not looking forward to. DH said he'd snow-blow me out,
but I'll let him sleep. He doesn't need to be up for another two hours, so I'll
be nice. 

My route will be almost totally on snow emergency route roads, and those should be plowed. If the winds and the still-falling snow aren't too bad, I won't have horrid visibility, and a little bit of caution while driving should go a long way. I'll hit my main grocer first for just essentials, then I'll drive to the shop and get that set up and ready. On my way back I'll grab breakfast followed by a stop nearby at Target - more a general-purpose store, but an essential one -  for a few things. Then home to hibernate for the day, do my usual housecleaning and laundry stuff, and finally, shovel once more. The snow is supposed to end around 10:00-11:00 am, so it isn't too horrid for the first major snowfall of the season. 

DH picked up a 15.5 lb turkey and lots of side dishes for our meal. I won't
be starving tomorrow, that's for sure! He loves turkey and I only make it
once a year because I'm not that fond of it. He gets to indulge in a
big bird and lots of left overs. Nummy! 

I won't be posting tomorrow, I rarely do on holidays. But I'm taking this opportunity to wish all of you, my friends both near and far, a safe and happy Thanksgiving. If you're spending the day with family, may the time be spent well - no fights, no tantrums from the smaller ones, and everyone content at the end of the day. If you're like I am and spend the day at home, may it be a peaceful one with the foods, people and critters you love. I'll be back on Friday, geared up to get back to the gym and a good workout. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY TO ALL! 

White Snow and Cards of Color

The snow came. It fell from the sky, starting early, early at around 4:00 am and not stopping until more than twelve hours later. There were heavy times and light times and the only thing that was a guarantee was that it was piling up on the driveway and the walkways, the city snowplows were casting their debris onto the driveway aprons and creating general havoc. I shoveled and shoveled and shoveled more throughout the day. 

One of the things I was doing yesterday was finalizing
my Bingo card choices for this year's B2MeM.
Of course, the Mods had the audacity to have
a range of colors available as topic choices. I
couldn't resist. 

The first shovel was easy - taking 1/2 inch or so off the driveway so that I wouldn't leave tracks when I went to the gym and brought the trash bins to the curb for the weekly pickup. When I got home from the gym, DH was out shoveling the drive. The snow had intensified and we had another 1-1/2 inches on the concrete. Then he left for work and I was on my own for the day. 

One of the other things that happened with the snow plows
was the mailbox, once again getting hit. This time it stayed
on its' pole (barely), but it was canted quite a bit. 

I needed to get to the store and the snow was still coming down. I bundled up between loads #1 and #2 of my laundry and headed outside. I thought I could just clear the driveway easily since DH had been working on it a mere two hours earlier. Nope! I had a solid three inches waiting for me and the plow scree at the end of the drive was stacked, in places, as deep as two feet. It took an hour of solid work and the last-minute help of the snow plow truck from the college across the street to get my drive cleared. It was horrid! I didn't get to the store until after 11:30 am - VERY late for my weekly grocery trip. 

The underside of the mail box shows the previous fix - a piece of
PVC pipe pounded over the original steel pipe with new screws
tightening the bracket holding the box in position. It's not off, but
it looks like the plow may have bent the bracket itself this time. 

Groceries bought and ready to settle, I continued my laundry. Load #2 was finished and load #3 was in the dryer when I remembered I hadn't picked the income taxes up from the accountant - something I needed to do. It was 2:30 pm by this time. I raised the garage door, looked out at a sea of white, and sighed, opening the car door to grab my shovel yet again. It wasn't quite as bad as the previous round, but still was at least two inches. The scree wasn't bad and actually stopped at the edge of the driveway, so I lucked out there. I went ahead and did all of the sidewalks too, since I had skipped those earlier. Forty-five minutes later and I was on the way to the accountant. 

So, I chose Red, and Orange ... because ... well,
orange. An impossible word and a beloved snack
treat. 

I left things pretty clean, and DH did a minimal clear of his tracks when he got home, but we survived this round of storms. My estimate is that we got close to eight inches in yesterday's snow. Today we have a day off, but we're on track for more storms on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We already set a snowfall record with yesterday's snowfall - more than 30" of snow in February. I guess our mild December came back to haunt us with a vengeance. 

After choosing Red and Orange, I couldn't let poor Yellow
sit in a dark closet all on its own. Yellow joined the fond
of my final choices because ... well, just because. 

I'm off to the gym. It's a machine day today, so if I didn't punish my body enough yesterday, I get to sweat on the elliptical and the bike. Oh joy! I follow that up with an appointment with a new physician - the head of the department - for a final followup on my hair loss. How can I be running late at 4:00 am?!!! I hope you have a fantastic and fabulous Thursday, and that if you are getting some storms, you are safe and secure while they rage outside. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Time To Shovel, Time To Swim

In an hour I'll be outside shoveling. I'm not sure how much snow we got, but since the forecast was for anywhere from 3"-8", I'm going to have to allocate some serious time to getting the driveway taken care of. If it's a lot, I'll wake DH and have him snow blow, but I could probably use the extra exercise. 

I'll be shoveling snow within 15 minutes or so. We got dumped on
overnight, so it's going to take some time. Still, shoveling burns
calories and can be a wonderful workout. 

In two hours I'll finally be back in the swimming pool. I've really missed it a lot, and I'm looking forward to going back. I found that I enjoyed working out to the machines too, though, so I may work out a schedule where I switch around more often, maybe four days in the pool and two on the machines. It's going to be great to be a drowning guppy once again, though. 

I've used this image for my "Drowning Guppy" for years now. I just
love how happy she seems to be under the water, and her
goggles and swimsuit are great colors against the water. 

With the snow, and diving into massive sub-zero temps for the next few days following, we're probably not going to be super busy at the shop. Chickie spent yesterday and will probably spend today at her old apartment, finishing up the cleaning and moving the last few things over to the new house. She's been working hard at it, but her lease is officially up on the 31st, so time is running out. 

The clock is ticking for Chickie's apartment stint. Her lease is
officially over on February 1st, and she'll probably have a
final walk-through with the landlord on Tuesday or
Wednesday night. She won't get her deposit back, but
she's not counting on it either. 

We spent Sunday continuing to work on our major clean. I tackled the study and he continued working on the studio. New shelving is up and already filled and he's finalizing his plans for the units he'll be building for my other side. We have to get this figured out because we'll have to do a serious move in one section fairly quickly - the carpeting we want to replace comes into the studio in one small place, but it'll be a killer to get access to. I'll have to build looking for new carpeting into my schedule soon. 

We'll use Hamernick's again for our carpeting. It's almost a family
tradition - my father-in-law and sister-in-law used them for
all of their carpeting needs for years and years. They did my
living room carpeting and the lino for my kitchen a few years ago. 

Still, we're cruising right along as best we can given the weather and the fact that a lot of things have to be pushed off until Spring. This coming Sunday is Super Bowl and we're not going to be cleaning then. But next week we'll continue our quest for organization. It's never-ending with the two of us. 

Enjoy your day and be safe, be warm. I'm going to wrap this up, plug in photos and start shoveling. Ick! I'll be back on Tuesday. 

We Got Pounded - Winter Storm Jaxon's Visit

We finally have a winter and it decided to visit for fifteen hours yesterday before retreating eastward once more. I knew we were expecting snow, but there was no agreement on when, how much, and how long. I hadn't seen so much disagreement in snow totals for a very long time, so I had a feeling this one could be bad. It was. 

In this map we're in the light yellow, but in reality, the orange was
closer to what actually happened. That meant we got between
8" and 12" of snowfall yesterday. It's moved on now, but we
got pounded. 

The weather apps ranged from a snow start time of 5:00 am through 9:00 am. It turned out that the 9:00 am people were closer to the truth. When it came down it was like a gauze curtain directly in the airflow of a floor fan. Instead of dense flakes falling down from the sky in somewhat straight lines, these were driven by a wicked north wind and were almost parallel to the roads - straight across from north to south - and heavy ... very heavy. 

The winds were wicked, causing white-out conditions outside
of the city, and serious drifting on roads within the streets
and highways of the Twin Cities. We haven't had a good
winter storm for several years, so I guess we were due. 

We eventually figured out that at the height of the storm we were easily getting an inch an hour deposited on the ground. The total snowfall in the cities probably ranged in actuality around 9" - 11" total, but with the wind blowing up drifts as fast as people could shovel or snow blow, it seemed much worse. 

We should be getting a winter warm up now, starting
today. We'll be in the mid-20's today, and by Friday we'll
have our day temp hitting 40. That will help melt down
a lot of the snow, compacting it down and getting
us ready for the next storm. 

I wish I had been able to take a photo of my car when I closed at 3:30 pm and went out to crawl my way home on slick snow-packed roads. Because of that wind, the north and east sides of my car were almost clear of snow, with the southern and western side having drifts and shelves of snow that easily were more than six inches deep, sculpted by the wind into self-supporting shapes that would have felt at home on Antarctica or Greenland. It was magnificent and quite cold to get off, but at least I didn't have to sweep the entire car because the roof was also wind-cleared. 

We had a partial snow day yesterday because I locked the shop's doors
at 3:30 pm. I'll have to shovel my walkway today and that'll take me
30-45 minutes, where usually it is 15 at the most. I'm not looking
forward to that, but losing a few more calories in exercise isn't a
bad thing. 

I shut the shop down at 3:30 pm - something I do VERY rarely. I wanted to come home while there was still light. My normal 10 minute drive home took me almost an hour, the roads were horrid and people were spinning off left and right because they were idiots and thought they were more important than the other people on the roads. Stupid! DH had managed to get the driveway snowblown out by the time I got home and said to wake him at 4:15 am and he would blow out enough for me to get to the gym today. What a guy! 

Sometimes DH comes through in spades. When it comes to snow
removal, he's pretty awesome. That he volunteered to get awakened
in a little more than five minutes from now to go and snowblow
me a pathway out of the driveway is awesome. What a man! 

It stopped snowing shortly before midnight, as abruptly as it had started. Today we begin the clean-up. The major roads are already cleared, I'm quite sure, but the side streets will be much harder to get in and out of for another day or two. It will take me up to an hour to get shoveled out at the shop. I guess I'll get a good workout today before I unlock my doors to the brave ones heading out for beads and needles. 

Have a great Tuesday and be safe. Our storm is heading on east and I'm quite sure we left plenty of snow for the rest of the nation to participate in our snowy goodness. I'll be back tomorrow and the Cities will be getting back to normal once more.