Pedestrian View

This is mostly for my Hawaiian readers.  Here’s the view from my living room looking east yesterday.

Winds were gusting over 60 mph from the east (from the lake) and snow was falling 1-3 inches/hour.  The wind leaves some places completely bare, and right next door a 5 foot drift. 

My neighbor had nearly a six footer in his driveway. 

Check it out:

George and I had a bit of a snowblower rodeo.  There’s nothing like getting out there with 8 1/2 horses of Briggs and Stratton and tossing some snow around.  The sad part is that this - and the storm we had last week - were the first of the season, which is essentially over.  We’ve had a nearly brown winter.  I suppose we’ll have two more.  How lucky can we get?

To back track, here’s looking north at the storm’s height:

It was a “snow event.”  Forget old fashioned terms like Blizzard or Show Storm.  No travel was advised, but Sherry had a hair appointment.  Naturally, we had to go, so we headed for Shear Katz in Fitgers by the lake.

While I was waiting, since everything was closed except Shear Katz (during blizzards, only the essentials:  grocery, liquor, and Shear Katz), I took the opportunity to go out on Gitchi Gummi at the height of the storm.  Two weeks ago during a cold snap, the thing to do was skate the lake, which my wife and children happily did without me one cold day.  Anyway, I headed out - the wind driven snow sandblasting me - onto Superior below Fitgers.  I thought it was a little slushy, then - perilously far from shore with absolutely no one knowing my whereabouts - I sank to my right knee.

It was time to return to the rocky shore quickly and not mention it to my wife.  Later at home, I confessed my stupidity to my family, only to be told that they’ve been warning against going onto the lake for a week now.  Who knew?

Back home, of course, the girls were home, warm and safe.  School was cancelled both Thursday and Friday.  Lucky us!

As I said earlier, I spent the whole morning with George running my snowblower, blowing out my driveway and another neighbor’s (they’re retired, but Marilyne still runs a mean blower).  No one’s going anywhere because the roads aren’t plowed yet.  As soon as a plow comes through, we’ll have to blow again because the plow will just fill up our driveway.

My teenage daughters, however, showed that they still have imagination.  They built show caves, and played cave monster.  Here’s Maia:

She’s the leader in snow event activities.  She strapped on snowpants and headed out first today.  Yesterday, she learned how to run the snowblower, too.  I thought she was having a great time (she did a great job), so I let her do the whole driveway.  Afterwards, it’s reported that she came in, stomping snow off, claiming, “I’m not doing that again.”

Later, she said, “Dad, when I ask to try something like that, I just want to go down and back once.”  I’m still learning a few parenting skills.

Maritha and Kylie are good soldiers, and once Maia led the way, they got into it.  Here they are:

In truth, they didn’t play snow monster, but their caves are pretty cool. 

If you’re in Hawaii right now, you’re probably thinking that you’ve got it pretty good, and I’m not saying you don’t, but I’m going out snowshoeing in awhile here. 

I’m thinking I’m going to catch some pretty good waves down by the creek.