Training Log Archive: CleverSky

I had aspirations of going out on snowshoes, but by the time I got done with all the other stuff I wanted to do today, and listened to my radio shows, I had a touch of indigestion and couldn't quite get up the motivation to undertake this epic slog in the dark. I'll see if I'm up to it tomorrow. Depends on when the snow ends, but the windchill should still make it adequately epic. I'll have snow dealings to attend to, of course. At least they brought my mail today. Meanwhile, as a cabin fever remedy, I just booked a trip to Florida for next weekend.

C • Where? 2

Snow dealings, round 5e: finally got a chance to dig out my mailbox so that I can get at least one delivery this week before the next storm arrives. Got up early to go out and do this, the snowblower worked fine (it was tough refrozen plow snow that I had to break up with a shovel), but it was 0 degrees F out there, so my fingers got a little chilly. Now for another weekend of moving snow, though it sounds like we may not get it as bad as the coast this time.

Footnote to this: got home and discovered that despite my having opened up the mailbox, they didn't bring me any mail. Boo.

Snow dealings, round 5f: has it really come to this? The snowbanks at Nancy's house had gotten tall enough that the snowblower couldn't really launch snow high enough to get it on top (never mind with a shovel), so I put on snowshoes and climbed up on top, and shoveled snow further back, creating a wide shelf for the next round of snow to be deposited on. We'll see how this approaching storm goes, supposed to be not as bad out here as it will be closer to the coast.

Snow dealings, round 5d: cleanup. Headed up to Mom's before breakfast to make her mailbox accessible and to get her car cleaned off, and brought in some firewood. Then came home and did a little scraping of my own driveway and got tidied up some plow leavings. People were driving like maniacs this morning, heavy traffic going too fast, maybe tried to make up for lost time and opportunities yesterday.

Spent a fine evening at the Banff Mountain Film Festival with Nancy and... Jon Nash!

C • Always wanted to attend one... 5

Snow dealings, round 5a: in a preliminary pass, I blowed an estimated 10" of accumulated fluff off of my driveway. There will definitely be more to come. I think we're going to have either a late start for spring/summer sports this year, or some impressive flooding.

Snow dealings, round 5b: defluffing the driveway to make room for the truck. It seemed to have stopped. That was an illusion.

Snow dealings, round 5c: excavating Nancy. Stephen came over with the truck after causing not a little anxiety among the adults, because I asked him to let me know when he was leaving, but instead of texting me when he hit the road, he did it before going to shovel out the truck, so we started getting really concerned when he hadn't arrived after an hour. We loaded up the snowblower and went to Nancy's house, where I set about trying to clear her driveway. We eventually got it.. well, sorta done... good enough, I hope. The piles are high enough (way over my head) that the snowblower can't reliably get the snow up and over them, so some of the snow hits the face and sticks there for a while, until the whole thing gets heavy enough and it avalanches. The last part we had to do with shovels, because I just couldn't launch it high enough with the snowblower, and something came loose in the shift linkage so I couldn't get the drive mechanism in gear (and when I did, it was usually reverse). Still snowing when we drove back to my place and got here at midnight, then Stephen went off to his Dad's place and got in at 12:30. I know this is winter in New England, and you have to expect snow here, but this is starting to suck.

Meanwhile, back home, I've got an angry inch: