It’s ten a.m. on Sunday morning and the much-vaunted snow-pocalypse has begun its reign of terror. A steady fall of small snow flakes are descending out of a gray sky. The temperature has soared from a low last night of two degrees Fahrenheit to a current balmy twenty degrees. I’ve announced to Camera Girl that I intend to skip snow removal altogether today and save my efforts for Monday when the lion’s share of the snow will be on the ground. The current predicted accumulation for Sunday through Monday is ten to fifteen inches of the white stuff. All in all, that’s not horrible. The snow blower is 24 inches high. Now, even fifteen inches will slow the work way down but you have to look at these things in the right way. I’ll abandon the bottom driveway for the next few days and start off with a path for my car to get out on the top. Then I’ll clear the entire top driveway and adjacencies and slowly work on the bottom driveway in a strategic fashion. And the wind will play an important part in that operation. Fifteen inches of snow isn’t a monstrous height but if wind forces me to dump off the snow right next to the row I’m clearing, it will quickly end up as three feet before very long.
And this is the sad reality of life in New England. Aspects of snow removal become the focus of your every waking hour. Equipment maintenance and repair, severity of the weather, work and chore scheduling, current health and injuries. It’s all very, very tedious and boring. But completely unavoidable. That is unless there is some plan for escape! But I know that will never be. I’m bound by the heavy chains of family responsibility. They’ve got me.
And that’s why Jake Barter is such a comfort to me in these times of tribulation. Jake resides on an island paradise somewhere in the South Pacific. Lying in a hammock beneath coconut palms he sips a cool drink while balmy zephyrs maintain a perfect seventy-eight degrees. And if by some miracle the temperature reaches eighty-two, he need only spring from his berth and swim about in the warm clear ocean for a few minutes before returning to his rest where he awaits the mellow sound of a dinner gong announcing the beginning of a feast concocted of pork, coconut, honey and spices, fit for the king that he is.
Oh, well. Maybe in my next life. But for now, I’ll count my blessings. The roof hasn’t collapsed under the weight of the snow. The propane tanks are full enough for even a two-week power outage. I have plenty of DVDs to keep me amused during the “weather crisis” and Camera Girl assures me we have enough food for the next few days at least. And tomorrow, my marketer has informed me begins the efforts to advertise “The Sniper.” I had assumed it would happen when the publication occurred on Wednesday. But you know what they say about assuming.
Well, we shall see. Today Amazon has it listed as:
Best Sellers Rank: #144,617 in Books
#599 in Technothrillers (Books)
#14,261 in Science Fiction (Books)
It would be nice if each of those numbers was shortened by a zero or two.
Now where is that hammock?
Enjoy the respite. We dodged the bullet here in Charleston, but west of I-95 is still facing more freezing rain. The worst power outages are up in the NW corner of the state, and line crews are working like Trojans to make repairs. My State Guard team is still on standby to help clear downed trees and supply emergency shelters, if needed, for at least the next three days.
Keep warm, and don’t overdo it on the shoveling!
(PS: My hard copy of THE SNIPER arrived yesterday. I look forward to some good rainy-day reading.)
Ed, it does my heart good to know that quality fiction is still appreciated in some corners of this troubled world. And if it lives up to expectations please leave a glowing review on Amazon.com. As for the weather. Last night at 11pm I stuck a yardstick in the snow and measured 14″. I’ll guess it’s 18″ now. They say we’ll get another 3″ – 5″ before 6pm when it’s supposed to end. I’m going out at 10am to start moving it off the upper driveway. I’m guessing four to six hours of work to do that. If the wind… Read more »
One of the reasons I moved to South Carolina when I finally retired. My Air Force and Army assignments were mostly on the Northern Tier (Minot, Syracuse, Plattsburgh, Burlington) 30 double-digit -below-zero-endless winters were enough! The blowing and drifting snow were the worst. It wasn’t enough to have to dig my way out in the morning, too often, I had to dig my way back in when I got home! My first winter Minot AFB, my crew partner called and asked me to pick him up because he couldn’t dig out his garage. When I got to his house, the… Read more »
Ed, luckily for me this was the least problematic major snow we’ve had in years. Too cold for ice. Fluffy light snow and, miracle of miracles, almost no wind. I have to go to work in a few minutes and we’re expecting an oil delivery so I did have to do about an hour of shovel work this morning. But that’s a mere bag of shells compared to the eighteen inches of snow I moved yesterday. Sometimes fate gets tired of being cruel and misses a chance to apply the blackjack to the back of the skull. Excelsior!
Due to my Mother’s side of the family being from Michigan and the 1st wife’s family hauling me all over the hemisphere snow skiing, I have more than a passing familiarity with snow but have never had to live with it. The 3-4 inches every 2nd to 3rd winter in north Atlanta metro is the closest I’ve gotten. Other than your drive and walks, what exactly do you have to maintain? I’ve heard of snow blowers but not seen one in operation but it would seem that they do the bulk of the labor. I live on 10 wooded acres… Read more »
The upper driveway is about 300 feet long and about thirty feet at its widest. The bottom driveway is 200 feet long and about 50 feet wide. I need the upper driveway clear to get the cars out. The lower one can wait a while. But letting the snow turn to packed ice is risky because if there is rain it can get trapped on top of the ice and might do damage to the lower level. So at a minimum I make a path to a large drain for the lower driveway. Under the right circumstances the snow blower… Read more »