Yesterday morning when I arose at 6:45 a.m., I tentatively looked out the window to see what was happening, weather-wise. When I had gotten into bed to read at 9 o’clock the night before, it was still snowing like the dickens. Remember when I said it was going to be no more than a foot-and-a-half? And remember when I explained that I didn’t go out the previous night and get my degree in meteorology? Well, that last sentence was quite apparent, because we got more snow than that. What fooled me is that it really wasn’t a blizzard, at least not in our southeast Denver neighborhood. I define blizzard as lots of BLOWING snow. The snow really never blew into giant drifts. It just fell flat onto the earth. For a long time.

When I tentatively looked out the window, I was delighted to see the snow had stopped sometime during the night. The sun was just beginning to come up, and the fallen snow was glistening like it was a sea of diamonds. The temperature was in the 20s, and the sun was going to shine…..

As an act of kindness to my grands (and to show myself that I still had it in me), I had a couple of cups of coffee, and headed upstairs to change into warm clothes. I was going to shovel. By that time, Bill had gotten up and poured a cup of coffee for himself. “I’ll be right behind you,” he promised.

The thing about spring snowstorms is that they are very wet and very heavy. The good news, however, is that Addie and Alastair had shoveled mid-storm on Sunday. Bill had gone out a bit later in the day and “pushed around some snow.” That’s how he puts it so that I don’t nag him about SHOVELING snow. I don’t fall for it, however, as I have been married to the man for nearly 29 years. My husband was shoveling snow. But I’m pleased to say he didn’t keel over with a heart attack. And I’m also pleased to say it made my job much easier……

I shoveled our front sidewalk. I shoveled the public sidewalk in front of our house. I took one run down our driveway and decided to take a break. By that time, Bill had appeared dressed like Nanook of the North. (I put a link to Nanook of the North because it was something my mother always said when she encountered someone dressed for cold weather. It occurred to me that I had no idea 1) how to spell it; and 2) what it meant. The link is for your edification. I love my mom, who had a blessed way with words.)

After a couple of hours, our sidewalks were clean and our driveway was clear enough that I could back out my car. The thing is, however, is that I could back it out to the end of the driveway, but no further. I’m afraid we will be stuck at home for a day or two. You might recall that my car is a Volkswagen Beetle. They sit about three inches off the ground. Since we live on a side street, the snowplows won’t come until tomorrow at the earliest. And when they do come, they will simply push piles of snow in front of our driveway. Sigh.

Perhaps I can bake some chocolate chip cookies to entice our grands to return in a day or so and dig out to our street.

I’ll help.