Oooph!

Terry and I just got done cleaning another healthy foot of "global warming" off the driveway and deck. Last evening the folks at AccuHunch kept upping the totals from 2-4, then 4-6, and up to 8-10 inches by the time we went to sleep at 10 PM--when it was j-u-s-t starting to fall.

At six AM we were awakened by our feline alarm clocks at which time Terry noticed the alarm clock was blinking indicating we had had a power outage a short time earlier. Then we got a phone call from the alarm company to inform us that we had lost AC power--the first of that sort of call we had received in a long time despite the powering flickering off and on three times for a few minutes each time about two weeks ago. Any way, we had to head down stairs and feed the cats by that time since they were howling at the door. It was then we noticed the deck held over 10 inches of snow and that it was still falling lightly.

I had no doubt that the snow thrower was going to get exercised today! And it did. The worst part about the job was all the loose gravel at the base of the snow. The thaw we had last week coupled with the salt I had spread on the ice to help it along its way resulted in the driveway still being unfrozen and loose. Still, by carefully maneuvering the chute and lifting the skids on which the front of the thrower runs, I was able to avoid chucking rocks at the truck, Jeep, house and Terry. And I only had to stop once when got one stone wedged in the impeller.

I also had to stop once to clear some frozen slush out of the chute after I had run though a large puddle of same along the side of the driveway. It surprised me that there was such a large puddle there since we had barely gotten up to 40 degrees on Sunday and came nowhere close to breaking 30 on Friday or Saturday. Even this morning it was just 15 degrees when we came downstairs. It struggled to get to 26 degrees at 1:30 this afternoon and then started dropping so that it was a mere 18 degrees at 2:30 PM when I wrapped up my work outside.

They say we'll be into the single digits tonight, the mid 20s tomorrow and then close to zero on Tuesday night with chances of flurries throughout that period before the sun makes a return late Tuesday. We'll be back into a daytime thawing mode on Wednesday that should last a few days so I'll just let Gaia take care of what's left in the driveway.

It's sad to look out over the lawn and valley below to see that all those exposed patches of grass that held out the promise of spring just a few days ago are once again under a foot of snow. But winter's back was broken last week. It won't be her forever...will it?