Slizzard 07

It started Tuesday nice and fluffy. By 7pm we had two to four inches of fluffy white snow. At 6pm I started putting the plow together. By 8pm I had everything clear and was done. The white fluffy stuff continued to fall. 3am (or earlier) I'm awakened but what sounds like gravel being thrown against our bedroom window. It was ice and/or sleet. Though it sounded like gravel, all I could think of was the scenes in Salem's Lot where the vampires scratch their fingernails against your bedroom window to let them in. All night I thought this as I heard the ice against the glass. I hardly slept at all. Finally at 6am I gave up and got out of bed.

Jen actually considered going to work. Her office doesn't have an inclement weather policy and it's generally expected they show up regardless of weather. I told her no way. Get fired. I don't care. It's better than dying trying to get to work. When we saw the weather forecast and the hazardous driving conditions warning, she agreed. Though some people at her office still gave her shit (maybe I can get someone to scratch at their windows tonight).

Around noon I decided it was time to get back out and clear the driveway. We'd have to go somewhere at some point. There was a bout four inches of snow with a crust of ice on top. The crust was so thick and strong I could walk on it. Oh boy, this should be fun. I fired up the tractor and rammed it out of the garage. I got maybe a foot before the ice-concrete stopped me cold. The shit has heavy. It would pile in front of the blade and just stop me. Backup and take another run. Wham! Only slightly further. Holy crap this is going to take a while. The only way to get anywhere was take two runs, make a pile, then raise the blade and drive over the pile - repeat. It took three hours to get out to the road. Many times I didn't think I was going to get it - either run out of gas or just give up.

Afterwords I threw on the new xc skis and tried them out in the soccer fields behind our house. I've only skied once before and the conditions were much nicer. The hard crust let the skis (or me I'm not sure) wander more then I would have liked. One would go one way, while the other was totally going another. I fell a few times, the wind picked up and I decided to try it another day.

Today I'm sore. Not sure if it was the skiing (more like falling) or the plowing. If I knew which, I'd count that time for my base training. Anything that makes you hurt like this (besides a car wreck) had to of been a physical endeavor enough to be counted.