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.

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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!

It is Snowing

When I went to bed an hour ago it was not snowing yet. I just got up for a minute and looked outside and it’s snowing like crazy and we already may have a couple of inches.

Lovely (he said, dripping with sarcasm).

During our week in Florida it snowed twice. In the eight days we’ve been back it has snowed twice more. The last time I looked at a forecast for this coming week it said it was going to snow more or less every other day.

Do you think mother nature is exacting some kind of asshole revenge on us for going to a warmer location on our vacation?

I think so. Mother nature is a prick.

It is Going to Snow

We had plans to go to Vermont My step son celebrated his birthday on Tuesday and we were going to go see him for a slightly belated birthday lunch.

That was before the winter storm warning was announced and the forecast started calling for maybe 10 inches of snow.

Eight days ago we were in Florida and it was 88 degrees out.

Winter sucks.

Last Night’s Snow

We got some snow last night. The anticipation was enough to screw over my band practice, but in the end it wasn’t too bad. I don’t know what the official total was but it looked to be about 4-5 inches of really light snow.

When I woke up this morning I looked outside and thought to myself that I would clear off the driveway and the walkway and the fire hydrant after work. I did my morning exercise and ate breakfast and then thought I would maybe go out and shovel a path from the road to the door and leave the rest for after work.

It’s really cold out today so I dressed in a couple of layers and put on my snow boots like a good boy. I went out, fully planning to do just enough to let the mail man get to the mail box. Next thing I know, it was all done. All of the shoveling. The entire driveway, both cars, the path around the house to the back door, and the fire hydrant. All done. I did not start the cars so they still have a layer of ice. Other than that, it’s all done.

I suppose there is still a chance that the plows could come back and widen things, and that would leave a small snowbank at the end of the driveway and I’d have to deal with that. We’ll see how that goes.

I’m really pleased with myself for getting this done so early. It would have been on my mind all day otherwise. Like a dark cloud hanging over my head.

And yes, this post is just an example of me whistling past the graveyard. Expect a bunch of these kinds of posts today.

We’re Going to Fail Again, Aren’t We

The band practice is on the books for 4:00pm tomorrow. I should be super psyched.

I’m not.

We’re going to get slammed with a snowstorm tomorrow afternoon. Practice is going to get snowed out.

MUTHA PUSS BUCKET!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but I swear that mother nature hates my guts. What a bitch!

First Time in Ages

I just did something that I don’t think I have done since before Covid came along and mussed everything up.

As previously mentioned, it’s snowing today. Not a lot. We have about an inch on the ground. We might get another inch on top of that, but by no means is today’s storm anything to be worried or upset about, other than the fact that snow is always a pain in the ass. We are New Englanders. This is nuttin’.

However, I needed to go out and do the grocery shopping. My wife has been eating super healthy lately and she was out of all of the healthy things she needed for lunch. I had to go out and restock so that she could have a good lunch. That means I had to go out to the store before the snow stopped. Not only that, I had to go out before the snow removal crews started working. In other words, I had to drive in the fresh, untreated snow.

As previously stated, that was not a big deal. There was enough snow to make the roads a little slippery, but not enough to cause any real troubles for an experienced snow-driver. It made me think though… when was the last time I went out before the plowing started? I can’t remember. It’s been a long, long time. The last time had to have been pre-Covid lockdown. There hasn’t been a time since then that I had to be somewhere bad enough that I couldn’t wait for at least the plows getting one whack in. The only thing I could think of that would have made me go out right away was if one of my parents were in the hospital. If that happened I must have blocked it out of my memory. There was the drive home from Vermont a few weeks ago… does that count? I think the side roads might not have been hit yet, but the main roads had. I don’t know.

So I guess all I did today was spiritually renew my New England Winter Driver ID card. Yeah. I can still drive in the snow. Yippee for me, babie.

Not Today

I was thinking of taking the new eBay camera out to shoot that long awaited test roll today. Maybe go to the Merrimack River or downtown or Forrest Lake. Anywhere, really.

Nope….

Not today. Friggin’ snow. Mother Nature just hates me, it’s obvious. I still have to go out and run a bunch of errands though. Friggin’ snow.

Jack Hammer

The temperature outside of my house right now is a balmy 18 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 14 degrees below freezing for our non-US, non-English temperature unit using readers. It’s really cold. The ground is completely frozen. It’s January 7th. It’s as Winter as you can get.

At this very moment there is a work crew jack hammering the street in front of our house. They are jack hammering all over the street. I think it’s something to do with upgrading the gas lines or something like that. The city sent us a notice about it months ago and at the time we thought, why the hell are they going to start a project like that in January? What the hell are they thinking? Have they never been in Massachusetts in January before? Everything will be frozen.

So yeah, we’ve got that jack hammering thing going for us as we start our work day today. Oh yeah, we also have a furniture delivery truck scheduled to show up within the next three hours or so… and the road is being dug up…

Nice. Ugh.

It’s Really Cold Out

Another freezing cold day here in Massachusetts. New England is in a deep freeze right now. At this moment I am sitting at my desk in the cellar with a heavy sweatshirt on, a space heater running, and an electric blanket draped over me.

Yeah, it’s cold.

I just want the air to be warm enough to let us go outside without it being painful. Is that too much to ask?

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