Tag: snow shoveling

Ouch

I’m too old for this shit.

Shoveling, I mean. I felt okay when I first came back inside after shoveling, but now that a few hours have passed… Ouch town, population me, bro. Every inch of me is sore, and despite having two of the best nights sleep I’ve had in ages over the last two nights, I am completely exhausted.

I don’t know if I have the energy to do anything other than sit on the couch for the rest of the night. I think we were already planning on ordering out for dinner tonight. Maybe I’ll be able to crawl to the door to bring the delivery in.* I mean, really… that’s asking a lot.

It is a good thing I managed to put rhythm guitar tracks onto two RPM Challenge songs this morning before I shoveled. I don’t know if I will be able to do any more than that tonight, though I really need to. We’ll see how the pain goes. For now though, it’s just couch time. Much needed couch time, believe me.

Here’s a few guitar pictures to hold us over until next time.

162/365
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*Obviously I exaggerate. I mean, it’s still laundry day after all.

Gift

We got a lot of snow. I can’t really say how much because it tends to drift into my driveway. That’s just how the wind works in our neighborhood. A lot of the snow and leaves and stuff blows down the street and piles up in front of my house. I’d say at least six inches of snow, maybe more like eight. Could be a little more, who knows. It was enough.

Fortunately it was nice and light and I got outside to shovel before it started to melt and refreeze, so it wasn’t a million tons of slush. It just picked up easy. The huge snow bank at the end of the driveway that the plows left behind was heavy, but not world ending heavy, if you know what I mean.

I cleaned off the cars and shoveled the driveway-proper nice and easy, then spent a big chunk of time on the snow bank. The piles on either side of the driveway are getting big enough that you really need to chuck each shovel full far and high to get it over the top. I felt a little like a soldier in World War I wandering around in a trench (no I didn’t, really, but you get the idea).

When the snow bank was gone I walked over to the fire hydrant at the other end of our front yard and found a really nice gift. Someone had already dug it out. It looked like the work of a snow blower, but I didn’t see any evidence of who might have done the work. Whoever it was (whomever it was?), I thank them very much! I don’t mind digging out the hydrant (it’s on my property after all) and you will never, ever hear me complain about doing it, but it was a really nice treat to not have to today. Again, thank you so much!

I finished up by digging out the path around the side of the house to where we keep the trash barrels, and to the back door. Once it was done I came back inside and wrote this literary tome. Now I get to make my wife some lunch! Snow sucks, and shoveling sucks more, but it’s all done for today so it’s time to celebrate! Huzzah, babie!

Radio Cat

160/365

Just look at that furry little diva being all bad ass.

Today has been better than yesterday on the healthy front, but I’m not up to 100% yet. Let’s call it 80-85% and assume I’ll be through whatever is bothering me by tomorrow.

Today I managed to completely screw up my daily routine but I’m okay with it. We got snow yesterday, so this morning at 5:30am or so instead of going down to the cellar and getting my exercise in for the day I went outside and shoveled. We didn’t get a lot of snow, but we got enough. Within an hour it was all gone. Not long after finishing up outside I went out and ran some errands. Today is a very important day, after all*.

I didn’t get to breakfast until I was starting work at 9:00am. The hunger pains that I wrote about yesterday were definitely a thing and the eating struggles I also mentioned yesterday were also a thing, but not as bad as last night. Since breakfast was so late I didn’t have time to eat a snack mid-way between breakfast and lunch. I ended up going four hours without eating and wouldn’t you know it, when lunch time started approaching those mean old hunger pains were back again. I’m eating lunch now and feeling a little better, though that weird queasiness that has been slowing me down the last couple of days is still there. It is definitely better than it was, but it’s still there. It hasn’t been enough to stop me the way it was yesterday, so that’s a big plus. Maybe I can eat enough lunch so that I won’t be hurting in the lead up to dinner. That would be nice.

*Why is today a very important day. you ask? Because today is my beloved wife Jen’s birthday! It’s not just any old birthday either. It’s a big enough milestone birthday that her present this year was a week at Disney World. Yeah, it’s a big deal. She’s the love of my life and the woman of my dreams and my beautiful bride and it’s her birthday! Wish her a happy birthday!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Jen,
Happy birthday to you!!!!

Transitions

My glasses have those transitions lenses. You know, they tint themselves in bright light so they act as sunglasses when needed. When the light is dimmer the lenses un-tint themselves.

Yesterday we got an inch or two of snow. Not much, but enough to need to clean it up. I did a lot of it yesterday when I went out to the store. It snowed enough afterwards that everything was covered again. I went out and shoveled it all this morning, including the path to the side of the house where we keep the trash barrels and in front of the fire hydrant that’s on the end of our property. I also put some ice melt down on the driveway. We’re good to go. Our personal snow removal is complete.

If you’ve ever been outside after a fresh snowfall you know that it is super bright. If the sun is out, it reflects off the snow and everything around you is super bright. The transitions lenses come in handy on days like this.

I’ve been back inside for 15 minutes now and the lenses have yet to un-tint themselves. It’s like I am walking around at midnight with all the lights off.

Fun.

Heavy, Wet, and Awful

I just came back inside after shoveling the driveway. Today’s snow storm left us with one of the worst piles of frozen shit I’ve ever encountered. It snowed a ton, then warmed up, partially melted, then started freezing again. The end result is each shovel full felt like it weighed 50 pounds. My back is killing me. My shoulders are killing me. My arms are killing me. My legs are killing me. I was only outside for an hour but it royally kicked my ass.

The forecast for tomorrow afternoon calls for partly sunny with temps in the low 40’s.

Figures.

Part of me wants to thumb my nose at the universe by buying an overdrive pedal. Or a film camera and a lens. Something like that.

First Post of the Day?

It’s almost half past noon and I haven’t posted anything yet? What’s wrong? Did Robbie fall down a well? Did I go into the witness protection program? Did someone tell me that you can catch Covid from wordpress.com so I locked it down?

Nope. Just busy.

I paid that dude $20 to shovel the driveway and, while it was money well spent and I would do it again, the dude did a pretty crummy job. That plus the additional snow that fell after he left means I had to shovel everything again. It’s all done, but my back doesn’t work anymore and the pain is borderline shocking.

Sooooooo I think I am going to sit here at the alternate desk in Jen’s office for a while. Ho hum.

I’ve been able to work on a little music between last night and today so far. I did some drums and bass stuff on two re-recordings. I hope to play some guitar tonight and do some car singing in the morning. I have one song ready to mix as well, so maybe I’ll get to that today? Who knows. It all depends on the pain level.

I still need to mop the kitchen floor, and there is a grocery delivery coming that I’ll need to put away. The rest of the day will be sitting here trying not to let my spine fall off.

Yippee!

One Crazy Friday

It’s 3:59pm and I am more or less free to break for lunch for the first time. What a day!

The kids are back to their dad’s for the weekend. It’s sad. Bellana will be coming over for some of the weekend so that’s good, but she’s off to study abroad next week so that’s sad but it’s also happy. This empty nest stuff just messes with my head in the worst ways.

I did a little shoveling this morning. Bellana did more. She was able to make it to her appointment and everything went safe and well. I expected that she and Harry would have to do some shoveling so they could get out to head to dad’s but wouldn’t you know it, some guy was going door to door asking to shovel driveways. If he wants to do it, then go for it. I had enough cash on hand to pay him, so off he went. He didn’t do all that great a job, but every snow flake he moved is one that I don’t have to move so it’s a win for me regardless. Also, who still carries cash? What’s the matter with you, Robert? Get with the 21st century, would ya?

91 minutes until the weekend. I can make it, I know I can. Here’s hoping I get to play a lot of guitar over the next couple of days. Every time it snows I feel like I should play to balance out the snow hate with some music love. Just keep me right in the middle, like lukewarm water*.

*If you haven’t seen This is Spinal Tap then we really can’t be friends. I mean, we can still relate on some level, but we really can’t be besties or anything like that.