Remembering winter

It snowed several times this winter - starting in December and then increasingly frequently and heavily in January and February. Stpehanie's school district had about a week's worth of snow days. These are various similar pictures of our home in the snow, but taken after different snowstorms.

Here's a picture of a snowplow at work down the street from us. We live in a suburb with some excellent services, including plowing of side streets like ours relatively early on. Our street is also quite wide for an old side street, which may make it easier to salt and plow.

We share a driveway with our next-door neighbor Diane. I often plowed first, but on her days off especially Stephanie got into the act, using our snow shovel and a broom to clear off the driveway. Below Diane and Stephanie join forces.

(Diane is our neighbor who knew the woman who lived in our house for 50 years before we did. When lights go on up in Vincent's room without anyone touching them - or occasionally other odd things - we say that Martha (or Mrs. Loran) is at it again. Stephanie - and to a lesser extent I - have stripped out much of the paint and wallpaper that this family had on the first floor. We still occasionally get mail for her. Diane tells us that she fell and went to a nursing home, but then came back and lived on a hospital bed in what is now our dining room before dying at home.)

This winter I actually liked shoveling. We didn't have any super heavy snows, and I always went out before it had turned to ice. Also, I sometimes shoveled after waking the dog or when I was dressed as if I was walking the dog. Either way, I would not be very cold (except for maybe my extremities). In fact, shoveling is hard work/good exercise, and so I might actually get hot pretty fast. With relatively light snow and not a huge area to shovel, I could get my part done in 20-30 minutes. Stephanie might shovel our walk and driveway much more thoroughly later. It took some of our neighbors much longer to shovel the sidewalk in front of their houses. The house, neighborhood, and area could be quite pretty snow, at least until it started melting - especially before other people had really started shoveling/plowing. One more set of winter pictures later.

-- Perry