It snowed last night, so much so that the entire town is closed down. And so am I. I’m not going anywhere. I would have preferred to stay inside, too, but as a homeowner I am now responsible for keeping my sidewalks shoveled. I doubt anyone would have hurt themselves if I hadn’t shoveled, because of the town being closed down, but I tend to err on the safe side.
Until today, any snow we’ve had since I’ve been here were easily swept off the sidewalks, but this snow was heavier, so I swept the front wooden ramp and shoveled the front sidewalk.
I worried about cleaning the snow off my new sidewalk/ramp in the back since the handrails have not yet been installed, and slipping on snow and ice is not on my to-do list for today. (Or any day!) I thought it best to just use the front entrance until the snow completely melted. (I prefer the rear since I have a sort of mud room — really, just a designated area — back there, which keeps dirt out of the house.)
But then, inspiration struck. There’s no rule book that says I have to clean the snow from the house outward, so since I was outside anyway, I cleaned the back ramp from the bottom up. No slips or falls!
I’m exhausted now, of course. Shoveling a mile of sidewalks is hard work. To be entirely truthful, a mile is a bit of an exaggeration. I think it was only a little over 120 feet when I count the front sidewalk, the back sidewalk, and the ramps. But that’s still a lot for a woman who’s only months away from being officially “elderly.” A young elderly, but still . . .
With any luck, I’ll be rested soon, which is good because I’ll have to go out again. The snow had stopped for a while and now it’s snowing heavily. (Probably because I cleaned the sidewalks. Life seems to like playing pranks like that.) What is really lucky is that although I don’t have good snow boots, I have excellent all-weather hiking boots. They kept me from slipping today, and they’ll be especially great when I hike the two blocks to my job tomorrow.
So what’s the moral of this blog? The lesson learned? There’s no real point to this blog that I can see other than when things are worrisome, look at them from a different direction, and when necessary, work from the bottom to the top rather than top to bottom. Or something like that.
***
“I am Bob, the Right Hand of God. As part of the galactic renewal program, God has accepted an offer from a development company on the planet Xerxes to turn Earth into a theme park. Not even God can stop progress, but to tell the truth, He’s glad of the change. He’s never been satisfied with Earth. For one thing, there are too many humans on it. He’s decided to eliminate anyone who isn’t nice, and because He’s God, He knows who you are; you can’t talk your way out of it as you humans normally do.”
Click here to order the print version of Bob, The Right Hand of God.
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Bertram's Blog 
October 26, 2020 at 12:21 pm
Shoveling snow: better you than me.
October 26, 2020 at 4:27 pm
whatever the meaning inside the writing, i just wanna say: I really want to hold snow… Ah, love four-seasons-countries.. 🙂
Nice to read your writing. 🙂
October 26, 2020 at 4:38 pm
It looks beautiful, but I think I prefer a broom to a shovel. Take care.
October 26, 2020 at 4:46 pm
Definitely a broom! When the second snow stopped, it was only about an inch — light enough to sweep away. Whew!
October 26, 2020 at 7:04 pm
It looks really very beautiful. Take care of your knees. Don’t hesitate to use a walking stick if it is necessary. When you go for a walk. I don’t know how long it will take snow period? Another outdoor activity with your broom. Any flowers?
October 26, 2020 at 9:33 pm
Good idea about the walking stick. I’ll use it tomorrow. All the flowers are dead now. The funny thing is, I’d ordered a couple of trees to be delivered at the right time, and they are scheduled to arrive in the next couple of days. It should be fun digging holes in the frozen ground.
October 26, 2020 at 7:05 pm
I’ve shoveled snow too! It can be a lot of work and very tiring.
I received my book, “Bob, The Right Hand of God” today.
It is lucky that Paul was in the Car Port. It is extremely windy today. Could have blown away.
There has been a lot of damage here in the park.
October 26, 2020 at 9:34 pm
Oh, I’m so glad you received your book. I hope you enjoy it.
October 29, 2020 at 9:16 pm
The coast gets less snow than many other areas of western Canada. We’ve had it forecasted twice this week, but so far it’s missed us. Hurrah! We’re ready for it though. Hubby has put the garden tools and deck furniture downstairs and brought out the snow shovel and snowblower. We don’t have a public sidewalk to worry about clearing, but we live rurally and have a very long, double wide driveway so the snowblower is a live saver (or back saver). I don’t envy you all the shovelling.
October 30, 2020 at 8:31 am
Apparently, this area doesn’t get many heavy snows, so that’s good. Luckily it melted. I have to plant trees this weekend, and once that’s done, I won’t care as much about the weather.