The Sun came out!...Eventually.Wherein we battle the Ice Giants for domination of our driveway.

We woke up this morning to the sight of large fluffy snowflakes gently falling from the sky and accumulating quite quickly over the deck and driveway. The same driveway I had spread all that salt on yesterday in an attempt to melt a half inch of ice.

Knowing that there were items that had to go out in the mail and that there were probably several items in our PO Box, I saddled up the Tundra, put it in 4-wheel hi and headed on down the hill. Once off the dirt road at the bottom of the hill conditions were pretty good so after picking up the mail, I headed to the grocery store for some milk.

That last must be a left over New Jersey reflex. You see, we are forecast to have anywhere between 5 and 10 inches of snow between Saturday morning and Sunday morning. In New Jersey, that would have called for a flat out assault on the local super market to get in all those absolutely vital supplies. The stuff you couldn't possibly do without for the 12 hours--maximum--it would take to get your road plowed so you could get to the store again.

When I got back, I got Terry to come out to shovel/scrape the snow and ice off the driveway as best we could. Getting the 1 to 2 inches of light, fluffy snow off was not a problem, it could easily be pushed over the layer of ice beneath. The areas where the salt had done it's job allowed us to remove most of the ice and quite a bit of the gravel beneath it. That loose gravel will be a bit of a challenge for the snow thrower if we get more than 4 inches of snow tomorrow.

I resalted the slickest portions of the slope in front of the garage and the little bit leading from the road but left the long, flat stretch of the driveway alone. That section is still as slick as a speed skating oval but I didn't want to use up all my salt just yet.

We got done with the shoveling in about an hour and said a prayer to old Sol--who had made a strong appearance and was, at the time, shining brightly down upon the expanse of salted ice--to do its thing by warming the gravel and melting the remaining ice. That prayer seems to have worked a bit, which is good because I was not yet prepared to offer any sacrifices. Perhaps, after this next storm and the following frigid weather.... As we went to the church's Friday Nite Dinner the Tundra was able to break a goodly portion of that salted ice into small chunks.

I'm currently sitting in front of the fire (I need the ashes to spread on the driveway) drinking a bottle of Rick's Rainbow Porter with Shadow curled up at my ankles. You won't find that Porter in any store, by the way. My son, Rick, brewed it up in his apartment in Eugene, OR and then shipped six bottles here as a Christmas present.

I won't be heading to the workshop tonight. There will be plenty of time all day Saturday. I'm not planning on doing much more than a quick run down to get the mail at 9 AM and, if the snow arrives earlier than forecast, may not even do that. Meanwhile, I'm doing the most important part of any project, whether it be building a workbench or clearing a driveway...I'm thinking about how I'm going to do it.

Remember: The 6 Ps:

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Of course the 7th P assures there will be work to do tomorrow and the day after:

Procrastination

I believe this may well be the most important tenet for economic recovery nationwide. I mean, if we all rush out to complete a job, then there will be no work to do tomorrow. If, however, we sit down and plan very carefully how we are going to go about doing the job at hand but NEVER ACTUALLY COMPLETE THE WORK, then there will be the potential for employment for days and weeks to come.

I believe this is how Congress has operated the last two years.

The trick, of course, is to get someone to pay you to do all that planning. That and giving yourself a really impressive title like, say, Community Organizer.