Snow Plow @ MindSay 
To preface, since I was born and raised in Hawai'i, I never had to deal with the snow. I never had to drive in it, never had to shovel my driveway, heat up my car before getting in...all those fun things that goes with living in a cold climate. But before you all feel like you want to kick my ass, I must disclose we did and still DO have mosquitos and rain. Prehistoric mosquitos that eat you alive, and lots and lots of rain. Not to mention the occasional hurricaine.
I never lived in snow until I moved to Colorado for college, and boy did I hate driving in the snow with the 'black ice'. So how fitting I've ended up in Arizona, where our winters are wonderful - as long as you are down south. Flagstaff though is another story.
We were finally able to go to our house in Flagstaff for the first time in about 6 weeks. With the holidays, we were visiting family around the U.S. so we didn't really have a free weekend to make the trip up here.
We were excited to see how much snow was still on the ground, since Flagstaff had gotten pounded with snow from 3 different storms in December and January. What I forgot to think about was how much snow had piled up in our driveway. That's right, as you snow-savvy citizens of the world know, if you don't shovel/plow your driveway, it keeps piling up and up and up! Not to mention the ice bank that forms where your driveway meets the street from the street plow.
There was about 3 feet of snow in our driveway. We sunk in to our knees trying to walk to the front door. After calling around, we did get a quote from someone who had to 'bring the bobcat and snow plows' out, which would cost us $900. Ha ha.
So we went to Sears and bought a snow plow. I told Mike he should plow neighbors' driveways in order to have the plow pay for itself. We got home, and after trudging through the snow again, i decided to shovel a walking path to the garage from the street where our car was. It would also serve as my exercise for the day. If you ever want a full-body workout, shovel snow that is 3 feet deep.
It took me about an hour but I managed to carve out a pretty good path. I had to break the ice with the snow pick we bought, and would shovel the snow out of the way. Pick, shovel, pick, shovel. Two separate men who were taking their daily walks (a lot of older people live up here and take daily walks) walked by and were so impressed that the wife was shoveling the driveway. One said he wished he had his camera so he could take a picture to show his wife my handiwork.
Mike then got out our brand-new Craftsman 26" snow plow (the last one in the store!) and plowed away until we could pull our car up in the driveway. Success!
I'll add some pictures shortly.
Tonight's pretty crappy. I'm still sick, I STILL can't eat real food after getting my wisdom teeth out, and I'm exhausted because I got up at 4 this morning to shovel a foot and a half of snow the plow spit into our driveway so my mom couldn't get to work, and then I worked for 3.5 hours with Carly who I love but is very draining. We decided not to go Nance's house for New Year's. Mom's already in bed, and Dad JUST caught the sickness last night, so he's going to bed in about half an hour, which means I am spending my New Year's Eve 100% alone. I got nothing to do, nowhere to go, and will soon have no one to talk to.
Tonight, I am pathetic as fuck.
But since I can't get RENT songs out of my head right now,
IT'S GONNA BE A HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Bank on it.
I don't really mind the snow. It is one of those things we learn to live with in the wintry northeast. A little snowfall here and there is nice. Just enough to coat everything in a beautiful blanket of wintry white. I have a wood stove in the family room with a screen insert so I can enjoy a glass of wine now and then while sitting in front of the fire all toasty and warm while watching the snow gently falling outside. It is just those every so often winter storms with the all at once heavy snowfall I don't care for. We have had 3 or 4 so far (I am not really sure as I have lost count) this winter season and it is not even officially winter yet. I do have a 4 wheel drive SUV so it is not a major problem getting around if I have to. I am just not all that excited about having to clear the driveway and walkway so I can get into and out of the house. I suppose I could just drive over the snow in the driveway but eventually it would get so high if I did not clean it up I would never make it back into the garage again. Besides that if I drive over it again and again it would just leave icy ridges all over and I might not even make it back into the driveway. So if I must clear it out, I must. A little exercise never hurt anyone. Well, maybe a few people, but not everyone.
The latest storm was not as bad as they had predicted. At least not in my immediate area. Surrounding areas had more in some places and some had less. It varies from day to day and storm to storm. It was snowing again when I went out to clean up the last snowfall from the weekend yesterday and it continued to snow most of the day. You may not see it in most of the images as they were reduced somewhat to fit the page and for faster loading. The snowfall was not very heavy, just the nice gentle flurries you would like to watch from inside while sipping a glass of wine by the fire. Which is where I would have rather been. The following photo's are a few images of my 2 to 3 hour wintry workout with a few winter animations added for fun.
The first step was to open the garge door to see what I was in for. It kind of makes you want to go back inside where it is cozy and warm and take a nice nap.
It doesn't look all that bad. The worst part is in the front where the town snow plows packed in all the salted ice and slush.
Time to do a little digging to make room for the snow blower.
I think that is enough of the fun with the shovel. Time to get Mr. snow blower out and clean up the remaining mess.
With the major portion finished it was time to clean up and touch up the remaining spots.
I could just as easily hire some snow plowing service but some of them do more damage to the driveway and lawn and generally leave more of a mess. Besides, I can do a much nicer and more thorough job.
Now, doesn't that look so much more clean and nice. It looks better than the previous cleanup post with all the leaves and junk all over the place.
Another cleanup job well done. Now it is time to go back into the warm and cozy indoors and make some lunch.
That is about it for now until the next big event. I do want to do a little exploring in the next day or so to see if I can find some interesting scenes to photograph around the area.
Until then, have a safe, warm, snuggly and cozy week.
