Hat on Top, Coat Below
« previous archives home notify list e-mail next »
Snow
March 1, 2005
Snow is pretty, isn’t it? Just looking at the scene above, I start to feel calmer. It’s so quiet and peaceful. I think about the times I’ve paused in the trees while skiing, savoring the sense of isolation.
It looks a little like this picture outside right now. Peering through the window next to my office door, then across the hall and through the window next to the president’s door, I can see through her window on the world. There’s a snow-covered evergreen there, only slightly obscured by the blowing flakes still falling and the ice crusting the glass. Yes, it’s winter in Michigan, and March is in like a lion indeed.
If I could just sit inside and look at the snow I’d be perfectly content. But no, it’s a workday and not going out was not really an option. Sure, some of my co-workers stayed home and claim to be working from there, but I’m too cheap to pay for a high-speed internet connection and so can do very little work unless I get myself into the office. If there’d been a foot of snow instead of six inches, maybe I could have justified staying put, but there wasn’t, so instead I spent my morning pages time shoveling and making lists in my head.
Reasons shoveling rocks:
1) Environmentally friendly–no fossil fuels used.
2) Burns calories and builds muscles.
3) Makes less noise than a snowblower, and what noise it does make is more natural, like the branches scraping against each other in the wind.
Reasons shoveling sucks:
1) Takes what feels like forever to move six inches of snow off only part of the sidewalk and driveway.
2) Heavy snow sticks to blade and either refuses to fly off at all or drops off in big lumps short of the pile it needs to go into, leading to rise in blood pressure. (And also sometimes swearing, but fortunately neighbors cannot hear that over the noise of their snowblowers.)
3) Not socially acceptable to strip down to underwear while doing it no matter how much of a sweat you’ve worked up.
Since it’s still snowing like it has been all day, I’ll get a chance to add to these lists when I get home.
This has been one of a series of Random Acts of Journaling, which has moved to a new home that the network here at the office has decided is dangerous so I’ll just have to post my link there after I get home and after I get done shoveling again.