Stealing Thunder

Yesterday it was 70 degrees outside and sunny all day. Today there is nearly 8 inches of bright white snow covering everything in sight.

It's been a while since I've had to go and look for the snow shovel out in the garage. It took me back perhaps oddly to when I was younger and the many times Tom and I would be stuck shoveling snow. Not only our walk, but also all the walks of the widows and elderly around. We only had a couple of shovels so it was always best to get to the shovels first or you would be stuck with the undesirable one. There was a bent up, green, metal shovel that I despised, and a plastic orange shovel with a large scoop. I liked the orange one because it didn't make such a horrible noise as the metal one would as it scraped the concrete. Also it could scoop more snow than I could comfortably hold in a single scoop. It made quick work of most walks, but it couldn't get the ice and snow that would always be frozen and packed tight against the concrete. For that job the metal shovel was the best.

There's probably some life lessons learned in the midst of shoveling walks, helping elderly people, working alongside your brother, and even in the shovels themselves, but all I am thinking is there better be some hot chocolate left when I get in or this shovel is going to be soon entered into evidence.

Burning Down the Diner

It was too hard to sleep so I stayed up watching a documentary on the evolution of machine guns and listened to the sound of the furnace sending hot air through the house. I wonder if the images flashing on screen would be different if they were viewed by eyes that weren't bloodshot.