We continue to learn how to live here at the very edge of the human habitable zone. (click photo to enlarge)
Here are some important lessons learned today after a foot (yes a freaking FOOT) of snow fell here in Springfield.
1) Establish base camp somewhere with a short drive way!
2) DO NOT take a shower and get dressed for work before establishing that you can actually get out of the drive way.
3) In the same vein, even if it is Friday and you are doing laundry tomorrow DO NOT wear your last clean shirt to shovel the drive way in! It won't be clean when you are done!
4) Just break down and shovel the driveway before you try to get out. Unpacked snow is MUCH easier to shovel than car packed snow!
5) Do not throw shoveled snow upwind. It tends to come back to you in unpleasant ways!
6) When you think, "Hey, I'm not cold any more! I must finally be getting used to this weather" You are WRONG! You are simply getting numb. It starts to hurt again when you get inside and warm up.
7) After shoveling the driveway so you could go somewhere, strangely you don't want to go anywhere any more.
Good lessons huh?
You know, while I was shoveling that long ass driveway I was getting bored so I started playing a mind game. I love old steam locomotives. So to help pass the time I pretended that I was a fireman shoveling coal into the boiler of an old locomotive. You know, instead of the sucky reality of throwing shovel loads of frozen water on what was once a flowerbed, I could pretend that I was standing in front of a roaring fire and shoveling coal! That little mind game helped me feel warmer as well as passing the time. After about an hour or so of shoveling and maybe three quarters done with the driveway I remembered that fireman unionized around the turn the of the 19th century so like any good union man I said, "Screw this! That's good enough!" and quit working! I just know that somewhere Jimmy Hoffa is smiling down on me!
16 comments:
lol at #5 ... this is the cause of much of my snow-shoveling induced swearing.
it is second only to when i hit a crack in the driveway with the push shovel and gore myself in the stomach ... and then do it again and again and again.
good news ... groundhog day tomorrow may provide a glimmer of hope, which will be dashed by the fact that february is evil.
holy cow! that is some serious snow. way too much for a redneck!
stay warm! it's going to be 74 here on tuesday!
Odd. My list on learning how to live at the edge of reason is much shorter.
1. Live where men will do the snow removal for you.
(Though I'm on my own for clearing off my car, that is unless my neighbor who walks his cat on a leash and comes outside whenever I get home and is a little bit creepy decides to be a good neighbor and clear mine off while he's warming his car up, but that only happened once.)
Jules
House of Jules
You forgot number 8.) Buy a freaking snowblower....
Or if your lucky like us and your snowblower isn't working very well you can hope your neighbor lady locks herself out of her house and comes to use your phone and then asks if she can snowblow your driveway....
I tell ya, Joe has a way with the ladies. :)
totally not fun! and that sucks about your last clean shirt, i would have called in sick after that good time.
stay warm this weekend. so next time you will shovel , then shower and get dressed right? and maybe you should buy some more shirts while you are getting that coat you need. be real!
you are insane. freezing cold with out a real coat and i'm talking long coat. no t a jacket. yeah i am gonna bug you til you do it!
It helps to have someone with a tractor and endloader to scoop the drive out - - I knew I married him for some reason . . . (besides the fact that he is adorable) . . .
And NO, he is NOT allowed to drive it to Springfield - - sorry, you're on your own! :-D
Funny... I was so freakin' hot by the time I'd spent 1/2 an hour pitching snow at 5 am that I was glad for the ice cold water pooled in my shoes! (Not so sure the tire spinning was good for my car, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do when it's THAT early in the morning! And yes, Rob... the driveway looks very nice... you can shovel it ANY time!
-Erika
Come to Atlanta. I've never seen a situation when anyone needed to shovel snow down here.
wow...you actually shovel your driveway? hhmmmmm...I just drive the car in and out a thousand times..hoping I don't get stuck.
I saw the news and that Ohare was virtually shut down.
A foot of snow and a loooong driveway... Call 1-800-SNO-BLOW.
How long did it take you to shovel?
8. When deciding whether or not to shovel, remember, if it is down hill to get out of the driveway, it will be UP hill to get back into the garage.
You know, my lil Saturn navigated through the snow very well. That is one super-long driveway. After shoveling that much snow you must have built some muscle. Are you going to be on American Gladiators tonight?
Oh my. I'm sorry you've had to learn so much about cold weather. For your sake, let's hope those theories about Global Warming are true.
I'm beginning to wonder if you're buried in a snow drift somewhere. Come out, come out where ever you are...
Where is little you? Hope you haven't been buried in a huge snow avalanche somewhere up north.
ROB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i know your work blocked blogger. that saddens me. and i know you don't blog on the weekend so you better start. but what about evenings? come on! help a girl out. it has been too long. i really need to COL again! seriously! and UGH on the snow. still snowing???? does the state have snow days?
and why won't you blog in the evening? what are you doing?
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