Yes. It's Still Snowing...

I fully admit that there are times I do not know why I moved back to the middle of the country. I grew up in South Dakota, where I learned early on how to deal with large amounts of snow. I learned how to shovel it. I learned how to drive through it. I learned to detest it while dealing with it. Then I moved away.

For some reason I can't currently bring to mind, I moved back to this part of the world a few years ago. And although most of the winters have been fine, I'm noticing as time goes on -- and I get older -- that I'm not such a big fan of the winters. I don't mind the cold so much. It's the snow (and rain and sleet) that bugs the heck out of me. The past few days have re-proven that point for me.

We have had snow every day since last Wednesday. It came down heavy on Thursday and Friday, followed by temps in the upper 30s. That sounds like it would be a good combination -- since snow melts above 32 degrees -- but it means that the 8 or so inches of snow all started to soften and turn to slush. When the temps dropped on Friday night, everything froze.

Right now, our sidewalks are iced over. Luckily, since it was slush when it froze, the ice is "bumpy" which allows for traction. The same can basically be said for the sidestreets around here. The main roads (freeways and major streets) are pretty much completely clear. But the sidestreets will probably be rough and bumpy until March.

I spent a large part of this morning just trying to shovel out the end of the driveway, which had been filled by boulder-sized packed snow/slush/ice chunks. The snow shovel wouldn't actually dislodge the chunks. I went for an ice scraper/chopper, but split the handle in half when I tried to pop one of the chunks free. Finally, I went for the garden spade and worked my way through the top layer of the blockade.

After an interlude of warming up in the house, I was back outside for more chopping. Finally, I cleared out another layer using the snow blower. In the end, I was able to take the car out to go to the hardware store to get a new ice scraper, as well as some sand and ice melt for the sidewalks.

Now all I need is somewhere to go where I could buy an early spring.