Ouch

This hasn't been a good week to live on the east coast of the USA. Two blizzards have hit since Friday night. Of course, I guess I shouldn't complain too much. My town got off pretty easy on Friday night. We only got 3 inches of snow while Philadelphia ( just a 67.8 mile drive from us according to Google Maps ) got 28 inches. Washington DC also got more that 2 feet of snow on Friday and one town in Maryland got 39 inches. Today's storm dropped 15-20 inches on a whole bunch of places from Washington D.C. to Boston, and my town was no exception this time. I don't know the official number, but I think we got between 15 and 18 inches. You know that really fluffy light snow that doesn't pack and is easy to shovel? Well, we didn't get that kind of snow. This snow was real HEAVY. I know this because I just finished clearing out our driveway, steps, and the path that leads from the driveway to the steps. The worst part of the job was dealing with the place were the driveway meets the street. When the snowplow goes down the street it pushes all the snow to the side. By the time the snowplow was done, it had left about 4 feet of densely packed snow in from of everybody's driveway. Anyway, I've been dealing with this snow since I got home from work today. It's actually still snowing now, but hopefully the rest of the snow that falls overnight won't stick too much. I put an OBSCENE amount of salt down on the driveway/steps/walkway after I cleared the snow, so hopefully it will all be relatively clear of snow in the morning ( Note: I walk to the train station each day, so I didn't have to worry about driving in this stuff today. However, I wanted to make sure Ruth and the kids could get the car out of the driveway and on to the road if they needed to drive anywhere tomorrow. Ruth is staying home with the boys tomorrow because school is canceled for tomorrow ( It was also canceled today )).
Anyway, I feel extremely sore right now and I'm sure it will feel worse tomorrow. It will sure be nice in about 10 years or so when I'll have 2 strapping teenage sons to help out with snow cleanup. I don't think I'm the type of Dad who would actually force his kids to do that kind of work, but hey, I'll be 50 by then. Assuming I raise my kids to be good people, I would hope they would want to help out their 50-year old Dad. Actually, Michael actually did try to help with the snow shoveling on Saturday morning ( after the 3 inches that fell on Friday ). It was sooooo cute. He had this little shovel, and as I worked on the driveway, he worked on the walkway and steps. Of course, he didn't really get much accomplished ( he is 6, after all ), and he kinda wound up walking on most of the snow and packing it down, which ultimately made it harder for me to get the walkway and the steps completely cleared. But hey, it's the thought that counts, and it was so sweet of him to try and help me out.

OK, enough complaining. I think it's bedtime now.

Rich