Well, it snowed all day Saturday and when it finally stopped we'd gotten somewhere between 18 and 20 inches here in town.  Since the wind wouldn't stop blowing it into beautifully carved drifts, I think it's safe to say we got between 4 inches and six feet.  That's how it lies all over everything.

In the garden boxes in our secluded little corner of the yard, the wind swirled in and scooped all the snow out of two boxes and built sharp dunes in the other two boxes that come to a peak about six feet off the ground.

I had gone out in the middle of it all and cleared the ice out of our gutters.

I still dont know why we have gutters.  I've asked this before and no one's ever given me an answer; what benefit do gutters bring besides giving ice dams a place to live?

I cleared those gutters out and Sunday they were back and twice as big.

By Monday the streets had been plowed; they're still pretty narrow but driveable.  I plan to stick to snow emergency routes till spring. 

School was closed on Monday.  Josie was delighted.  I spent a good chunk of the day up on the roof, chopping ice.  The sky was clear and blue and the temps fell to below zero but I have the wonder coat so it's not a problem.

I bought this ugly brown jacket about ten years ago at Sam's club.  The very year I got it, I caught the back vent on a nail and ripped a chunk out of it.  Then Jay threw out the detachable fur lined hood, which I never used and don't miss.  the zipper is mostly broken but I attached twine to the pull and I'll keep wearing it as long as I can get the zipper to work.  Why?

Because it's the warmest thing I've ever owned and it weighs nothing.

I was up on my roof yesterday for over two hours in subzero temps and was warm as fresh cookies under that coat.  If I had a pair of mittens made of the same stuff, I could live outside all winter. 

As it was, I had to come in because my wool mittens kept soaking through with the ice that melted in the sunshine.  I was comfy everywhere else but my finger tips were frozen.  That's not so good.

I also broke my ice pick.

I was in the back, on the ladder, propped between the junction of the tv and dining rooms.  This is where the snow has drifted very deeply against the house.

First, I dropped the pick and it landed on the far side of the drift beneath me.  I stared down at it for quite awhile before facing the fact that without it, I couldn't attack the ice dams.  So, I came down the ladder and climbed the snow drift.

I immediately found my self hip deep in snow.

And I couldn't reach the pick.

So I rocked back and forth in the snow, making the hole I was standing in wider until I could rock forward and grab the pick.

Then I couldn't get out of the hole.

I tried.

  From where I was planted, between my dining room windows, no one in my house or my neighbors house could see me out any windows.  If I froze to death and slumped down where I was, behind a massive drift, my family would think I had run away from home and not know my fate till spring.

This of course struck me as completely hilarious and I started to laugh.

By bracing my feet on the side of my house, I was able to launch myself, polar bear style, up over the snow drift that trapped me.  As I told Josie later, if she had happened to be looking out the tv room windows, she'd have seen her mom do a back somersault and slide head first down a snow drift laughing like a  little kid.

I told Jay all this later and he said "So, you were having fun,"

Yes, I actually was having fun.

I didn't get all the ice cleared away, my fingers just couldn't take the cold.  I'll have to get back up there but I'm not looking forward to it.  I do enjoy the job itself, my legs are bruised from my shin to my hips from leaning on that ladder.  I bruise fairly easily these days and I look like someone took a baseball bat to my left leg.  I didn't lean on  my right quite as much, but it's tender to the touch.

Josie and Carolyn tried to go Christmas shopping but an encounter with some black ice made them change their minds.  So they came back here, I made guacamole and they watched The Hangover.

That's always a good plan B.

School was canceled again today.

It seems they can't get the school buses out.  Too much snow.

Josie and I are going to take advantage of this mini break by doing a bit of Christmas shopping.  gotta do our bit to spur on the economy.

I picked up my Christmas cards last Friday and I wrote a letter so I'm ready to go but I  can't seem to bring myself to address them.

Maybe it's because no one is paying me.

I have Christmas orders up to my eyebrows and the whole weekend was a wash because of the snow.  Not only did we spend hours and hours shoveling snow and chopping ice but it made my arms and especially my hands so sore I can't hold a pen our brush comfortably and I have to work really slowly, which sucks.

On the other hand, I did finish reading the Hunger Games trilogy which was fun.

But I really need to get to work; after Christmas the orders will dry up and I need the money to live on all winter.

This is assuming we survive.

 

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