We had our first big snow of the year this past weekend. I kept looking out the windows to see how much accumulated, but it never seemed to be a great deal. Monday morning rolled around and I was hit with the realization that we had close to 20″ of snow. My plan to just plow through it looked less likely all of a sudden.
I tried anyway, and got the car stuck about 1/3 of the way down our 100′ driveway. Cody trudged off to work on foot and I stayed behind to free the car and then attempt to clear the driveway.
Some quick math: 100′ of snow, 8′ wide driveway, at 20″ deep works out to about 12 tons of snow. Suffice it to say, my back and hips are not pleased with me today. Took several hours to clear it all with the little, dinky, collapsible shovel I was using.
Next time, I’m going make sure I have a proper shovel or two and lay down rock salt in advance, so it keeps the snow from even accumulating. Not sure if that’ll work or not, but I can hope.
No, really.
This weekend, I decided to put some extra work into mowing the lawn. The first change was bagging the grass, which was a mixed blessing. While the lawn looks better for it, bagging works out best when your clippings are small. I hadn’t mowed in a couple of weeks. My clippings were not small. I have an awesome pile of grass behind my shed that must weigh in excess of 200 pounds.
Anyway. Our front yard has a pair of maple trees spaced about 15′ apart. Instead of the usual up-down pattern, I moved the mower to the base of the tree and mowed in growing spiral pattern. Once I hit the half-way point between the two trees, I moved to the base of the other tree and repeated. The result was a nice water ripple effect on the lawn, with the trees acting as the ripple source. I’m pleased with it.
In other news, I need to start devoting time every day to the various skills I want to improve—writing, drawing, and playing guitar. I haven’t drawn in ages. I last picked up my guitar weeks ago. I don’t know how to get into a good pattern with it. Any ideas?
This weekend, Cody and I finally finished the last milestone in making the house “livable:” painting the kitchen. The kitchen’s modification has been a long, arduous process that started in mid-June. The first hurtle was getting rid of its hideous pineapple wallpaper. This took an army of people to do (who have my everlasting thanks) over a period of several weekends. Once finished, we still had to patch some substantial holes and cracks, sand down spackle, prim, and finally paint.
To celebrate, we threw our first proper house party.
It’s a little odd to walk through the kitchen, dining room, and sunroom now. They’re so open. Before, they were cluttered with boxes, tools, and debris. Now, the floors are clean, the walls are brightly painted, and the boxes have been tucked away. It feels like a home.
With the major house construction projects out of the way–the pantry still needs the same treatment the kitchen got, but it’s a small space and low priority; the upstairs bathroom just needs to be repainted–I can start focusing on writing. NaNoWriMo is still a month away, but I’m going to try to amp up my daily wordcount and plow through a novel by the end of November.
The trouble is, I have yet to decide which story is the most promising. I’ll probably end up writing both at the same time, depending on which strikes my fancy at any given moment.
This weekend, thanks to the assistance of our friends Keith and Lisa, Cody and I managed to finish painting the dining room. All that remains now is the kitchen! (Technically, the pantry off the kitchen still needs to be de-wallpapered and the upstairs bathroom still needs to be painted, but those are very secondary compared to the dining room and kitchen.)
Cody and I have created a deadline for ourselves, in that we’re hosting a party on the 26th. This should be no trouble at all to hit, assuming we spackle the kitchen throughout the week and then paint this weekend. In general, we can do two coats in one day. I don’t think the kitchen will need as-extensive priming as the dining room did. The kitchen is going to be almost entirely spackled due to the underlying surface.
So, the light from the end of the tunnel is bright!
On the downside, my seasonal allergies are starting to kick in. Ugh.