Snow, more or less

It snowed yesterday. Wednesday night into Thursday, that is. I awoke to a little more than an inch of snow: enough to cover the sidewalks, but not enough to blanket the lawn completely so that no blades of grass poked through. I made quick work of our sidewalks here, but then had to eat and shower and dress to go over to my new house to shovel the sidewalks and wait for my electrician to come and complete the installation of my new electrical service.

By the time I got to the house the electrician was already there. Not just there; he was there with a shovel, shoveling a path along the sidewalk to the electric meter, the point where the electric service enters the house. My neighbor Ray had already shoveled the sidewalks in front of my house. Well, not shoveled, but used a leaf-blower to blow away the dusty snow from his sidewalks, my sidewalks, and the elderly neighbors' sidewalks next door. Also my steps and the slate sidewalk at the bottom. This is the guy who mows my lawn in the summer because he loves using his riding mower so much. (As opposed to the neighbor here, who loves to use his riding mower to harass a neighbor's dog by roaring the engine each time he passes the dog's doghouse.) This is the guy who patched a crack in my coal bin wall because he was doing some concrete work on his own house and had some left. A hell of a guy.

I opened up the house for the electrician and left him the key. (Trust is a precious commodity with me, and this guy came highly recommended.) I then noticed that the sidewalks had picked up another quarter-inch or so of snow since Ray had cleaned them - not a lot, but enough to push aside. I grabbed the shovel I had brought and ran up and down the sidewalk in front of my house, Ray's house, and the elderly neighbors' place on the other side. Four or five passes did it, with a minute or so of detail work on the neighbors' steps and porch.

(When I was about six years old, my brother and sister and about five cousins and I were all piled onto this neighbor's garden swing. There we were, singing and laughing and swinging, happy as could be until one chain broke and we all spilled onto the ground. We began running and screaming, going in every direction, terrified at what the neighbor might do since we had broken his swing. So I figure I owe him!)

Finally that was done. I put my shovel in my hallway next to my push broom and sweeping broom, made sure the electrician knew where to leave the key when he was done, and headed for work.