Digging Out and Driving Around
Today we finally dug out of the snowstorm that hit the Northeast. Snowstorms are like hills when you are on a bike--the long, steady incline hills are worse than the short up and down ones. As my tenth New England winter I am getting used to it. We have a full complement of quality snow removal tools: kitchen broom (for the steps),an allegedly backsaver shovel, snow pusher (big difference, Ohio folks, here is a snow pusher), snow blower (our beloved, Harold), and a really nice plastic shaker jug (which sounds like a move exotic dancers do) like this one. I also have a "work jacket" I got at Sears in June for $19 and the surprisingly hard to find crappy $8 gloves (Marshalls came through in the clutch).
One thing I do miss is my snow removal buddy. Bianca was a little tornado of snow removal, shoveling and sweeping like a woman possessed. Unfortunately with Peanut on the way, that didn't seem wise, both the heavy lifting and the slip and fall potential, so I did the full snow removal solo--driveway, walkway, two cars, roof rake, dig out for the oil delivery, and salting without the benefit of the Lil' Tornado. She did help pass me new snow implements as needed and had a hot lunch ready when I got in.
Once we dug out we went to the grocery and Bianca checked a second hand store for maternity clothes, which are still, by in large, woefully unfashionable. Bianca has done a great job finding nice looking clothes, but the attendant effort is ten times that of normal clothes shopping. There seems to be a difficulty index for clothes shopping that apply to all people, something like this (on a scale of 1-10, this is logarithmic, like the Richter Scale):
Wedding Dress: 10
Prom Dress: 8
Maternity Clothes: 8
Bathing Suit: 8
Jeans: 7.5
Dressy Clothes: 7
Workout Clothes: 7
Regular Clothes: 5
Jackets: 4.5
All men's clothes: 1
The search continues.
One thing I do miss is my snow removal buddy. Bianca was a little tornado of snow removal, shoveling and sweeping like a woman possessed. Unfortunately with Peanut on the way, that didn't seem wise, both the heavy lifting and the slip and fall potential, so I did the full snow removal solo--driveway, walkway, two cars, roof rake, dig out for the oil delivery, and salting without the benefit of the Lil' Tornado. She did help pass me new snow implements as needed and had a hot lunch ready when I got in.
Once we dug out we went to the grocery and Bianca checked a second hand store for maternity clothes, which are still, by in large, woefully unfashionable. Bianca has done a great job finding nice looking clothes, but the attendant effort is ten times that of normal clothes shopping. There seems to be a difficulty index for clothes shopping that apply to all people, something like this (on a scale of 1-10, this is logarithmic, like the Richter Scale):
Wedding Dress: 10
Prom Dress: 8
Maternity Clothes: 8
Bathing Suit: 8
Jeans: 7.5
Dressy Clothes: 7
Workout Clothes: 7
Regular Clothes: 5
Jackets: 4.5
All men's clothes: 1
The search continues.