Now or Later

To my son Tommy,

There are basically two trains of thought when dealing with snow. Shovel all day as it snows to "keep ahead of it" or wait for things to settle down and deal with it then. I waffle back and forth between both trains of thought, depending on the situation and various factors.

Today, shoveling is sort of like washing your hands before you are done eating Doritos. Basically, any previous efforts are erased. Still, I go out every couple hours and shovel around the heat pump outdoor units at a minimum to make sure they keep running. And that is about all I do because it is nasty and blowing and the two foot of snow will just drift back to where I clear if I go farther. And just that 20 linear feet seems to add up to a tiring three metric tons of snow.

You are unhappy that we won't let you out yet today. You came out last night with me as I did my first (wasted effort) shovel of the driveway, and this morning had a real bad sniffle. It is much nastier than it was last night. But I promised you this snow would be here for plenty of time to get some quality outdoor play in the white stuff.

"Yeah Tom, you should see how high it is where I shovelled. That stuff will be there for awhile!" I assured you.

"You aren't piling it in front of the cars, are you?" your mom interrupted accusingly.

"In front of the cars?! Screw you. In front of the cars? I haven't made it past the heat pumps!" I retorted as I felt the back pain throb to warn me not to go for the driveway yet.

Oh how we laughed. Good times for the blizzard of 2016. I am going for a Guinness or three!

Sincerely with live from your dad,

Leo