After all that snow and all that drifting we had - so much that I couldn't find the septic vent without much tramping around in the snow and searching - we had several days of warm weather and sunshine, and most of the snow melted away.  By this weekend our yard was mostly just grass, with a few small piles of snow left.  Then Sunday came, and we got rain and sleet and maybe a bit of snow, but it didn't add up to anything.  I guess further north they got quite a bit of snow, though.

Monday morning we were expecting snow, so instead of walking, we went out to shovel.  It really hadn't done much overnight, so there wasn't much to push off.  We did it anyway, just because.  We got the snow off the top, but couldn't completely clean the driveway.  There was a layer of ice under everything, and the wind was pretty strong, so we decided it would not be a good day to walk.  The odds of staying on our feet weren't too good.

We didn't get to walk again this morning - because it really did snow overnight.  Once again, we have snow, a nice white blanket over everything.  So we shoveled instead of walking.  It's exercise either way, and the snow is prettier than that ugly brown grass.  When spring comes and the grass starts to turn green, that will be a different story.

Earlier this winter I was noting how the snow in our back yard was so smooth, while the neighbors' back yard snow was all churned up.  The difference?  They have two dogs.  It doesn't take long for them to mess up all that pristine snow by running around the yard.

This time we've got some messed up snow in our back yard, too.
It snowed so much and the drifts were so deep that the vent pipe for our septic system was completely covered.  This is not a good thing, because if it can't vent where it's supposed to, it's going to vent somewhere - and that's not a good thing.  We realized this a few winters ago when the cap got knocked off, and the pipe filled with snow, and we started wondering, "What's that smell?"  Thankfully, once we figured it out, the problem was easy to fix.

This time?  First we had to find the vent.  Looking back, I'm thinking we should have put some kind of tall neon marker or something on it - so it would have been sticking out of the snow, making the vent easy to find.  Or at least have noted ahead of time exactly where that thing was.  Our neighbors didn't need to call Cary tree removal after the tornado so we could have lined it up with one of their trees - or something.

But, no, instead I went tromping off through the snow - some of those drifts were up to my thighs - and tried to find the thing.  I knew it was somewhere in the back yard, in from our one remaining tree.  We had to call something like tree removal Durham NC to get rid of the other ones because they were so damaged.  The back corner of our yard looks so naked now.  But anyway, I figured out that tromping around in the snow looking for a vent pipe is really good exercise!  But I didn't find it.  Then I thought to take a shovel out and dig through the snow, which is also good exercise, but I still didn't find it.  So I sent my husband out when he got home from work, and he couldn't find it either.

The next day I took my camera out because I wanted to get some pictures of all the snow in the back yard and the back of the house, and I tried one more time - and I found it right away.  We were so close!  And I made a note of where it is, for future reference.  It lines up with a wooden pole at the back of one neighbor's shed and a tree on the other side of another neighbor's yard.  They're not allowed to call Raleigh tree removal or Waukesha County tree removal or any kind of tree removal service, because I need that tree to stay right where it is.

It took us over 2 hours to shovel out the driveway yesterday morning.  Those are the kind of days that make us think that having a snow blower would be nice.  Most of the time, shovels work just fine.  We either don't get that much snow at once, or we can shovel it a time or two while it's coming down so we don't have to do it all at once.  It's rare that it snows and blows all night long so that the driveway is covered with knee-deep drifts in the morning.  And most of the time we just think of shoveling as good exercise.

Now, when we get older and can't handle it anymore, we'll have to think about getting that snow blower, finding someone else to shovel our driveway, or maybe we could just buy a house in Hawaii and get away from the snow altogether.  That would definitely be nice.  Of course, there's just a tiny bit of difference between the $600 or so it would cost for the snow blower and the cost of that new house.  I guess I better start saving now!  I wonder if this mortgage calculator can help me figure out how much money I will need to save?

In the meantime, I'm just going to be thankful that we're physically able to shovel our own driveway and that it doesn't usually pile up quite so high.  If you'd like, you can check out my snow pictures.  Yes, everyone else was sharing their pictures of the Blizzard of 2011, Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, etc. so I figured I'd share too.  When IF I ever get that house in Hawaii, when everyone else is sharing snow pictures and blizzard stories, I'm going to share pictures of the beach! 

Is that mean?

Weather.  It's what we talk about when we can't think of anything else to talk about.  Lately, it seems that no one can think of anything else to talk about.  Facebook, Twitter, the TV news - it's all about the weather.  A blizzard across the entire middle section of the country, temperatures in Texas colder than temperatures in Alaska.  It really is kind of crazy.

I can understand people in southern states who aren't used to snow and ice and cold temperatures going on and on about it.  It's unusual weather.  It really is something to talk about.  Here in Wisconsin though, it's normal to have cold and snow in the winter.  That doesn't stop our local TV news crew from going on and on about it.  There's one channel in particular that drives me absolutely bonkers.  For some reason, they think they need to stay on the air all day long, pre-empting regularly scheduled programming, in order to talk about every single detail of the bad weather - repeatedly.  I mean, yes,we did get a lot of snow this week, and the wind blowing that snow around made the roads treacherous and cut visibility way down, but how many times can you tell people that?  Or, correction - how many times do you need to tell people that?

I'm just waiting for it to stop snowing today so I can go out and shovel the driveway.  Since I don't have to go anywhere and Jeffrey won't be coming home until later, there's no real hurry - and I figure there's no sense in shoveling while it's still snowing.  I'd just have to do it all over again!  We did clean it off this morning, and it was snow-covered by the time Jeffrey got showered and dressed to leave for work.  So I guess we could have saved ourselves the trouble.  The snow does look pretty, though.  Everything is all covered in white, from the trees to the deck, which does not have any deck furniture or adirondack chair, just waiting for spring to be used again.  The deck is nice.  It adds additional living space, but not at this time of year.

This time of year I'm happy to stay inside - except for my morning walk and the above mentioned snow shoveling.  When I get cold I'm more likely to wash some dishes in the stainless steel kitchen sink or bake something than to turn the heat up.  The only problem with that is that, in the winter, I need to wear long-sleeved sweatshirts, but those long sleeves make it very hard to do anything because my sleeves keep falling down.   And when my hands are wet or messy, I can't really push them up very well - so I end up using my mouth.  Or just taking off my sweatshirt in the first place and using hot water or getting really active.  Something like kneading bread dough on a butcher block countertop usually works.  Vacuuming is good, too.

When I'm not doing something like cleaning, cooking or baking, my computer or my cat do a pretty good job of keeping me warm, too.

When it's cold, you can't cover your mouth and nose - because your glasses will get all steamed up, and you won't be able to see anything.

Sometimes I'd really like to be able to cover my nose.  Sometimes because it's cold and sometimes because I don't want to smell the exhaust from other people's snow blowers.  Like this afternoon when I was shoveling the driveway.  For the second time.  I covered my nose anyway, and then tried to look out under my glasses to see what I was doing.

And now, a video. The smell from this snow blower didn't bother me because I was inside, looking out my kitchen window.  Just enjoying watching the snow fly.
 

Somebody decided it's winter.  Wasn't me -  I promise!

We had a few inches of snow yesterday, but nothing major.  It sounds like more is coming tonight.  They're saying 4-7 inches, so I guess we'll see.  It makes me happy that we're home inside all safe and warm with nowhere to go.  I really don't mind snow when I can look out the windows and enjoy it from inside.  If I have somewhere to go, that's a different thing...

The idea is that I'm supposed to post here so I can remember what's going on in my life - and other random things.  Except that I don't post, and then when I try to remember things, I have no record.  Probably because it just seems mundane and boring to record when I took the flannel sheets off the bed and started using regular sheets again (last Monday) and when we turned the furnace off for the season.  Yeah, right - I turned the furnace off because it was May and surely we wouldn't need heat anymore, and then it got cold over the weekend, and we had to turn it back on.

It's probably not a big deal.  In fact, it's probably normal, which I would know if I actually kept track of dates and times and I could look up past years to find out when it finally got warm enough for regular sheets and turning the heat off.

On a positive note:  thankfully it was cool yesterday so that all the windows were closed, because the lawn treatment people came and put whatever nasty chemicals they use on the neighbors' yard - and even with all the windows closed, I was smelling those chemicals.  Yuck!  What's so bad about dandelions, anyway?

As I was shoveling the driveway for the 2nd time today, I was thinking:

• Why is it that I always want to spell shoveling with 2 L's?
• I really wish the neighbors didn't have snow blowers - not because they get their driveways cleaned in less time with less effort, but because the gas fumes really bother me and sometimes give me a headache.  So much for crisp, fresh air.
• I really don't mind shoveling snow - unless it's really wet, heavy, and deep, like at the bottom of the driveway where the plow goes through, and in front of the mailbox.
• Even if the snow isn't super deep and heavy, shoveling the entire driveway is still good exercise, especially when I have to do it multiple times a day.
• Sometimes I'd like to wait until it actually stops snowing so I can shovel the snow all off at once, but I don't like to drive through it or have anyone else drive through it.  Tire tracks in the snow just make it harder to clean off the driveway.
• It doesn't seem to matter which gloves I wear, my fingers always seem to get cold.  Except today - today they were warm, but it wasn't very cold out there, I guess.  I did recently get some fingerless gloves with a mitten part that pulls over the end - what do you call those?  Glittens?  I'm hoping that will help.  If not I may have to find me some mittens and see if that helps, keeping my fingers together so they can keep each other warm.

and, there were other things going through my head, not all of them related to snow or shoveling, but I can't remember any of them now.  Oh, one of them was that I probably wouldn't get outside if I didn't have to shovel.  I still get outside in the mornings to walk, but the rest of the day I don't, so shoveling is good for getting me outside.  Getting outside to play in the snow isn't something we seem to do anymore.  So shoveling is good.

When I feel like I'm getting a cold, I usually go with a lot of hot water with lemon and honey, with some Vitamin C thrown in. Next time, because, unfortunately, there will always be a next time, I think I'm going to try this:

Recommended dosages from the Arm & Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:

• Day 1 -- Take six doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals
• Day 2 -- Take four doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals
• Day 3 -- Take two doses of ½ teaspoon of baking soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter ½ teaspoon in glass of cool water each morning until cold symptoms are gone