Hot and Cold

One nice thing about my job - I get a break from the snow every now and then. Last tour I stayed south of the Mason Dixon line the whole time (though, frankly, Atlanta can get pretty cold this time of year).

For example, here is the view out of my window one morning. I was staying at a resort in the Islands...

Then I got home mid-snowstorm in Cleveland. My car was buried under a foot of snow, surrounded by a foot of snow (and that was before I knocked the snow off the roof, windows and hood). This, by the way, can make for some wet socks later.

So when I got home, I had to find an open space on the street in front of my house so I could shovel out up to my driveway. Of course the side of the road wasn't clear, and I got my car stuck trying to pull to the curb. I extricated myself (reverse, drive, reverse, drive) and parked a little farther out (but so traffic could still pass). I ran into my house and changed clothes and got the shovel from the garage.

The worst part is the end of the driveway where the snow plows have piled up the hard, chunky snow from the street. I was pretty whupped by the time I had gotten five feet up the driveway. Luckily my neighbor takes care of the sidewalks surrounding his house with his snowblower. Then it was just a matter of going back and forth dropping shovelfuls of snow on either side of the driveway. I had a lot to think about though, for example, the view from my hotel room in the islands.

My main goal, if nothing else, was to be able to get my car into the driveway. If it had to stay out overnight, I was ok with that. It actually wasn't all that cold ('course, I was exerting myself here), but that made for some slushy, heavy snow underneath the powder. I got halfway up the driveway, and got my car UNSTUCK again and pulled off the street. Then more back and forth, back and forth. This is a good method until you get between my house and my neighbor's and no place to pile up the snow. Now it's push, pick up, haul, dump, walk back, push, pick up, haul, dump, etc.

Meanwhile, I was thinking about my stay in the islands. I'm actually not much of a beach person. Give me mountains to hike any day. But when you've got memories of a sunrise such as this, it's hard to come home to a foot of snow. Actually, getting to my whole "life on the road as a pilot" theme, could you imagine if I had been out of town this week? I have shoveled four times in the last three days. But only because shoveling a couple of inches of powder takes little effort. If you let it sit, it gets packed and heavy. And all this snow this week would have really piled high!

I am going to try for some cross country skiing tomorrow, if I can find the time. I don't know if I will, though. I've got some big projects in the works for Girls With Wings and need to get some things together before I go back to warm (ha, freudian slip), I meant, to work again!