We've Got Snow!

We've Got Snow! Several inches of the white, fluffy stuff fell overnight. Today will be cold and very windy and, of course, it snowed, so I have to shovel before I head out to the gym. I'll also have to shovel at the shop. 

Snow plows can kick up a lot of snow, and all of that
crap has to be shoveled off the driveway. We have a
snowblower, and if it's a bunch of snow, I let DH take
care of it with the blower. But if I can handle at least my
tire tracks, it helps keep our ice problems to a minimum
as we drive in and out. 

If I'm lucky (and that's all in the perspective of "lucky"), it will stay cold enough that the wall I'll begin to build outside the shop to separate the sidewalk from the snowplow crap will actually stay until the next snow and the next one. The wall helps keep my shoveling reasonable, without huge swaths of heavy, laden snow that the plow kicks up. In fact, shoveling in general without the snow plow detritus isn't too bad. It's that last yard or so where the driveway/sidewalk meets the roadway that's really bad. 

My snow wall isn't this impressive. All I do is
begin to pack snow at the edge of the sidewalk
to create a barrier between the snowplow
snow and my sidewalk. This, however, is
extreme snow - 20 meters high in the
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route in Japan. 

The fact that I do have to shovel, however, puts me on a truncated schedule today. I have to build extra time in before leaving for the gym, and I'm not used to shoveling any more, my body has to adjust to moving snow with a long stick and a flattened piece of metal or plastic. When I have time, I clear the entire driveway (2+ cars wide and very long) plus the sidewalk to the front door. When I'm tight on time, I just clear my own lane so I don't leave car tracks in the snow. 

Because we have a north-facing driveway, these innocent car
tracks can turn to ice really quickly. Once they've iced over,
they can stay until Spring, making driving in and out of the
garage a more treacherous experience. 

So winter has finally arrived. Will she stay until late March? That's her usual rental dates for our part of the world. But at this time of the year she often goes visiting back and forth and we don't settle in for the long visits until after the New Year. We'll have to wait and see what happens, but whether she stays or not, she's finally here. 

Morana (also known by other names) was the Slavic goddess of
cold, winter and death. She was honored each year by the building
of a bonfire which the populace would jump over, then an
effigy of her as a young straw girl dressed in beautiful garments
would be burned. This would keep the populace healthy through
the cold season ahead. 

Happy Tuesday to all. Here's hoping you get logs of things accomplished today because it's only twenty days until Christmas, eight-and-a-half days until Hanukkah, and seventeen days until Solstice. The clock keeps ticking.