First of all, it was an honest to goodness blizzard. We got 8-12 inches of snow in my neighborhood between noon and ten at night. That’s a lot of snow. The wind was blowing throughout the storm so it was hard to tell just how much snow we got; there’s a lot of drifting.
The error I made was pulling my car up into the driveway.
After I talked to Megan and we cancelled all our plans, I went to the grocery store and got the fixin’s for spaghetti. It’s the perfect meal for a blizzard; hot, delicious and easy. Plus, Jay doesn’t love it and he’d be out of town for a game! I usually pull up the drive when I have to unload groceries.
Here’s the thing: we have too many cars. We keep the two nice ones in the garage but I prefer driving the beat up old minivan. What can I say? There’s a reason the minivan is the car of choice for Moms. So much to love...
I also kind of like parking on the street. Backing down our long, narrow driveway is not the most fun I’ve ever had. Many a rear view mirror has been scraped off sundry cars by our fence, which was built to withstand a tsunami carrying a battalion of Huns. Many people, in their attempt to avoid hitting the fence, have scraped the Haiti out of their paint job on the decorative wall that edges the front garden. Getting a minivan between the fence and the wall is a bit like threading a needle with a camel. Remember: you have to do it backwards. It can be nerve wracking.
But hauling groceries up our driveway is more of a workout than I want, so I compromise.
I got the groceries in the house and promptly forgot all about the car.
A few hours later, Jay called to say that the game was cancelled due to the weather and he’d be home as soon as he could, traffic being what it was. Did I think he would have any trouble getting his car up the driveway?
I told him I’d shovel the bottom of the drive so he could get up. I bundled up and went to scrape what I thought would be about three inches of light, fluffy snow off the bottom of the driveway and move my car out of the way.
I was right about the snow being light and fluffy. It was delightful!
But it wasn’t three inches.
It was more like eight. And that was on the leeward side of the drive. The wind had been blowing straight across the park and up the driveway for hours, creating a drift that crested to about three feet, from the beginning of the fence to right behind my minivan, which was now completely packed in snow.
I made Zack come and help me dig.
Here’s the dumbest part: we own two snow blowers. Jay has shown me how to start them many, many times. Two seconds after he’s done showing me, my brain says “Nope: delete” and I forget everything. I don’t know why Zack doesn’t know how to start them. Maybe he does. Maybe he just likes shoveling. Maybe he thought I made him shovel for some convoluted reason he didn't want to ask about.
This is the kid who once ate lunch with me while I was coloring my hair and never mentioned that the dye hand not only run down the sides of my face like out of control sideburns, but in a wide stripe down the center of my face. He just beat me at Yahtzee without saying a word about it. When the timer buzzed and I went back into the bathroom to rinse, I burst out laughing at what I saw in the mirror. After I’d rinsed and scrubbed, I asked him why he didn’t mention it and he said “I just thought you were trying something new.”
So yeah, if I tell Zack he needs to shovel, he doesn’t ask questions.
It was actually lovely. The wind had died down a bit, it wasn’t cold out (30 degrees!) and the snow was light. It was a nice way to break a sweat. We didn’t finish before Jay got home. He parked around the corner and told us he’d finish with the snow blower once the snow had stopped.
After dinner (he had leftovers while I ate spaghetti), we went back out. He fired up the big rig and cleared the drive, the neighbors and the sidewalk while I raked off the TV room roof.
My arms and shoulders were so sore by the time I finished, I didn’t think I’d be able to move today but I took a long hot shower before bed and felt fine this morning, which dawned sunny and bright.
MJ, Katie and I walked Lake Harriet later in the afternoon. It was exactly what we want in a January afternoon. It’s supposed to warm up by the end of the week but I hope it doesn’t stay warm for too long: I don’t want too much of the snow to melt. It’s so pretty!
Like most Minnesotans, I want it to be cold and snowy for the Superbowl. I’d like the fans to have a good time while they’re here and leave, wondering why anyone would choose to live in such a frozen wasteland.