While waiting out the Nor’easter on Thursday:

Scoutie in the tunnel.

Reading material, remote and coffee.

The remains of some soup and a banana. The tray is balanced on the wire laundry basket, which is now sans yarn. I’ve stored it in my All Things Creative Closet as I’m not crocheting at the moment and it was getting dusty.

Warm slippers.

The view outside at the end of the day yesterday:

Scout must feel she’s in some sort of sensory deprivation experiment. As she walks the paths in the dog corral, she can’t see over the walls of snow. She definitely seemed stressed yesterday and I don’t blame her. I’m stressed. It’s also slippery snow, which makes navigating it quite tricky. I wish I could make it easier for her.

As to your questions about shoveling, this property is somewhat rural. It’s not like it was when I was growing up and I lived in a suburban environment, with a relatively short driveway and paved sidewalks. We have a long, uphill gravel driveway. We have no sidewalks. We live on a little hill and there is a little hill in back of the house. When snow falls this heavily it drifts downhill and the piles of snow are even bigger than our neighbor’s across the street, who live on a relatively flat piece of property. Right outside my kitchen window, the snow is extremely high because it’s at the bottom of a hill. I’m going to have to shovel some of that out of the way before I rake the kitchen roof. It’s very daunting at the moment.

Paths for Scout must be shoveled so she can get uphill to the dog corral and move around the corral. Paths have to be shoveled out to the driveway from the kitchen door and the front door. Paths have to be shoveled to the shed and the trash can. Yesterday morning, the plow had created a wall between the mailbox, which was completely covered, and the street. It would have been impossible for mail to be delivered.

My neighbor used his snow blower on our driveway but after I tried to clear the parking area and the flat area by the shed (where I back the car up to head on out of the driveway) it was just too much on top of everything else I had shoveled. This snow was so heavy and wet. So I asked Bill to help me again. And Laura and I shoveled to free each other’s mailboxes. Laura’s daughter, who is adorable, also came to help. Poor girl, she wanted school to be in session because it was Valentine’s Day and she had her Valentines all ready to give to her classmates. That kind of thing is so disappointing to a kid. This danged storm has wreaked havoc everywhere, even with kids who don’t usually mind a snow day but sure didn’t want one on Valentine’s Day.

I came in for a while, then went back out and shoveled some more. The plow had been by again, so that meant more shoveling at the end of the driveway. Then I shoveled about 20 inches of snow off the car.

Tina and Noble dropped by at the end of the day with their roof rake, bless them. I’m going to use it over the next few days. I want to do some work today, but I woke up with such a sore back and achy right hand, that I’ll have to wait and see. Maybe a day off?

Don called me around 6:00, while I was making dinner, and asked me to do him a favor. Would I go upstairs and look for a list of phone numbers that he had left in the office? Achy, tired, and depressed, I sighed and said yes. He added that he thought it was in the top drawer of his dresser.

Okay. I trudged up the stairs.

I opened the drawer and said “The only thing I see is an envelope with my name on it.”

Then it hit me. He had left a Valentine for me.

That guy. He always fools me. He can concoct some story that I totally fall for, just like I did this time. That put a smile on my face. Love him. And boy, do I miss him.

Happy Saturday.