Snow and Toys

So it snowed.  And snowed and snowed and snowed.  Like so many people in our area I am tired of shoveling.  My muscles have screamed at me so much I’m starting to develop a complex.  My husband, who normally likes plowing, is tired of plowing.  But the best is yet to come…the big thaw.  I can’t imagine the mud hole that will be my yard when all the snow melts.  I try not to think about the condition my carpet will be in with 16 muddy paws traipsing in and out numerous times a day.  I am better off hiding my head in the sand, if I could find some sand that is.

On a totally unrelated note, last month I got a Kindle.  In case you’re not familiar it is an e-reader from Amazon.  I can download books wirelessly in less than a minute.  Although I still love to hold a book in my hands, it’s always fun to get a new toy, especially one I will use regularly.

Right now I am reading Ozzie Osbourne’s autobiography.  Beware, it is not for the faint of heart.  Ozzie has done some bad things in his day and he uses more foul language than I thought possible for one human being but I have to say that Ozzie is not only very honest, he’s also very funny.  I like the way the book is written.  It’s like sitting down with Ozzie while he tells you his story, only I can actually understand what he’s saying.  (Personally I think the man has marbles permanently embedded in his mouth.) 

Fred got me yet another new toy…an iTouch.  Now I have apps!  I can listen to music, check the weather, make notes and check my stocks (if I had stocks.)  It does all the things I could do in real life if I wasn’t so lazy.  It also has games, one of my favorites being Paper Toss.  I can sit for hours and toss a wad of paper across a virtual office until it lands in the trash can.  Score!  (What can I say, I’m easily amused.)

Back to the weather (which I just checked out on my iTouch instead of, you know, looking out the window)…all I can say is I can’t wait for spring.  Green grass, budding trees and robins building nests for their babies.  The dogs can enjoy sunning themselves on the deck and I can get my hands dirty in the flower beds.  Sadly, according to the clueless groundhog that gets unceremoniously yanked out of a perfectly good hibernation, we still have a bit more winter to get through.

But hope springs eternal and I know eventually this mess will be gone and I can commence moaning about the heat of summer.  If you hear me doing that please, for the love of God, smack me.  🙂

If You’re Easily Bored, Don’t Read This

Sometimes nothing exciting happens but I want to write about it anyway.  Don’t ask me why as there is no method to my madness.

Fred didn’t have to work yesterday so we went shopping.  We did more window shopping than anything but it still counts as shopping as far as I’m concerned.  Being that my snow boots went belly up I needed a new pair and Fred needed new work boots.  Like I said, nothing exciting.

First we went to the mall.  It’s been so long since we’d been to the mall that it’s been totally renovated since the last time we visited.  The first thing I noticed is that most of the stores are high-end stores now.  Way out of my league considering that a person needs maximum moola to shop in them.  I was still able to find a kick-butt deal on snow boots so all was not lost.  I’ll be able to trudge through the 12 to 18 inches of snow we’re expecting this weekend without my toes freezing off.

I’ve wanted to find a pair of small diamond stud earrings so we decided to look in the jewelry store.  Apparently I live under a rock.  I had no idea just how expensive diamond studs are.  The salesman showed me a pair of tiny studs for over $2000.  I thought I was going to have to change my pants.  I played it well though and pretended like it was chump change.  I told him I was doing some comparison shopping (which I was) and got the hell out of Dodge.  I have to wonder if he wasn’t on to me what with the profuse sweating and all.

We looked at several other places but the cost was so far out of our range that it gave me indigestion.  I’ll figure out an alternative plan some other time.

After lunch we headed for the grocery store.  As I mentioned we are expecting a big winter storm.  From the sound of things it’s going to get ugly.  Of course this means there was no bread at the store.  There were, however, other important staples one might need to tide oneself over during a snowstorm…popcorn, ice cream, coffee and copious amounts of chocolate.

Snow events around here tend to leave us feeling a bit isolated on our street.  We live in a small town and there is no snow plow.  When we first moved here I witnessed a guy on a back hoe plowing Main Street.  Seriously.  We are usually snowed in until the county decides that maybe those of us on the hill might actually still be alive and need to get out.  My husband and neighbor use the plows on our ATVs to plow as much of the road on our part of the hill as they can.  It’s a win-win situation – they get to play in the snow and we can get out of our driveways.  Of course we can’t get far because the rest of the road leading into town is impassable but it’s the thought that counts.

There is also the issue of digging out the back yard so the dogs can do their business.  I told Fred that I was not shoveling this time like I did during our last big storm.  Instead he can bring our ATV (which we affectionately call Brutus) to the back yard and plow out areas for the pups.  Otherwise our whippet Flurry, who has white hair on her legs and back, will fall in the snow and we won’t see her until spring.

Flurry - my little snow bunny

Anyway, I digress.  All in all it was a good day, minus the call I had to make to our new mail-in drug prescription company.  More on that another day.

So if after reading this you are still awake, I commend you.  You are truly a glutton for punishment but I appreciate you.  Now it’s time for me to finish preparations for our big snow event and milk the cows on my Farmville game on Facebook.  Good times.

A Shoveling Fool

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I’m not as young as I used to be.  I mean really, who is?  If I were as young as I used to be then I would be, well, as young as I used to be.  I wonder; if I were as young as I used to be, would I complain that I’m not as young as I used to be?  Seriously, this could go on and on and wouldn’t that like, I don’t know, eventually take me back to the womb?  It’s scary how my mind works.  Anyway, my point was supposed to be that shoveling snow is not as easy as it once was.

I knew last night that we were expecting a lot of snow.  I didn’t like it but I knew it.  Why then, when I woke up this morning, did I look outside and feel surprised?  Maybe in the deep recesses of my mind I’d hoped all the meteorologists covering the entire eastern seaboard were wrong and the storm would somehow pass us by. I really should trust the Weather Channel a bit more; after all weather is what they do.  Duh.

I have to admit that I was taken in by the beauty of it this morning.  It was barely daylight and with big flakes falling, it was so quiet it felt as if a sound proof, protective blanket had covered the earth.  I absorbed the silence thinking that this…this…is what peace sounds like.

My Currier and Ives moment was short lived when I remembered I have four dogs that needed to go out and I had to shovel an area for them to do their business.

Crap.

Lucky for me Fred got a place shoveled out for them before I even got dressed.  He must really love me.  Either that or he just felt sorry for the dogs.

Speaking of my husband, he had to go to work this morning.  I could not believe it.  No one at work figured they would have any customers today. At least they are closing at noon and he can come home and plow the driveway which will promptly be snow covered again when the wind picks up.

I’ve shoveled three times since I started this blog entry.  My back aches and I have one Advil left in the house.  To add insult to injury, the dogs do not seem one bit grateful that I’ve expended so much energy to clear a space in the snow for them.  They don’t want to get their butts wet but they don’t want to do any of the work either.

It could be worse though.  I haven’t fallen down yet (a miracle in itself.)  I have everything I need to get through a snow storm…a shovel, boots, a coat, gloves and enough ingredients to make cookies.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.