Winter exercise

Well, I got my exercise in this afternoon. Took me approximately two hours to clear the driveway of two inches of light fluffy global warming. Built up quite a sweat twisting and pivoting, pushing and lifting the shovel.

Got to listen to the garbage man struggle to get his truck turned around at the end of the drive while I was at it. It's more a baby garbage truck than a real one. It has a compacter mounted on the rear and an enclosed dumping hauler and is bigger than the old pick-up he used to use, but it still has just a single set of tires on the rear axle and is rear wheel drive only. Apparently he didn't stay high on the hill enough when he backed in to the driveway and when he attempted to go forward to turn back down the hill had his rear tires slide sideways so as to remain even with the nose instead of getting behind the nose of the truck. Skid marks in the snow indicate he must have gone down the road sideways for a bit before he eventually got things straightened out and went on his way. Made Terry feel good that she was able to get up that slope and into the driveway without a problem in her Jeep Compass.

As we near the end of January and with less than a week until Phil makes his annual prediction, I sincerely hope that Joe Bastardi of AccuHunch was wrong when he said there would be lots more winter weather ahead--at least until mid March. The short range forecasts (15 days) seem to lean his way, however.

Wait a minute.... Mid March.... Mmmmm, that would be about six weeks after Phil makes his prediction on February 2nd based on whether he sees his shadow or not. You don't think Phil and Joe Bastardi are, say, communicating, do you? They are both down there in southwest PA. AccuWeather is out of State College. Phil is in Punxatawney just one county to the west. Coincidence?