Winter is Upon Us

Wednesday, I was in the shower when I noticed the vague and distorted image making its way through the bathroom window didn't have the usual color-scheme. I immediately suspected snow. Cracking the window a bit, I looked out and was shocked to see that it wasn't just a little snow; the entire neighborhood was blanketed in 3-4 inches of powder.

I shut off the water and hurriedly dressed and got outside to shovel the driveway. You see, in that very moment Tammy was getting Cordelia ready to go to grandma Lynda's house. Grandma was taking all her grandchildren, of whom Cordy is the oldest at 22 months (Garrett is pushing for 5 months, and Madison is barely 3), to get their pictures taken together. Madison had made a special trip out from Virginia for this opportunity (not to mention poor Patty – Madison's mom – is all alone at home right now, because Chad – Tammy's brother – is crazy-busy during election season). I needed to get the driveway clear before Tammy left.

If you never shovel, or just don't have to shovel the driveway clear of snow at your own house, you may not immediately understand why I was in such a hurry. So let me explain: Clearing snow while it is still fluffy and powdery, or even if it's crusty and icy, is always much easier before it gets compressed under 2-3 tons of steel and fiberglass concentrated over 192 square inches of rolling galvanized rubber. Sure, compressed ice can be cleared away, without too much difficulty, with a metal shovel, and I'll certainly have plenty of opportunities to do it that way over the next several months, but why not take the opportunity to avoid that mess when I can?

Anyway, I got it all cleared out of the way before they left, so good on me.

Then yesterday Cordelia found her Disney Princess shoes (which are velcro and still a tad big for her), and slipped them on. She then grabbed Tammy, who was still in her sleepin' clothes and tried dragging her by the thumb out the front door. Since I was already mostly dressed, I convinced her that I'd be more fun outside, so she helped me find my shoes, and she found my jacket for me (she's a very good helper, you see). After switching her shoes to the right feet, I grabbed the leash and we took Argos for a walk around the block.

Argos was almost immediately frustrated, though he would never admit it, since he likes to walk briskly when we go. Cordelia's idea of hurrying is a really cute attempt at running consisting of throwing one foot in front of the other haphazardly in a really awkward, yet adorable, speed-walk. Besides, she was in no hurry. She stopped to step and stomp on every stray chunk of snow that had found its way onto the sidewalk. What would normally be a 5 minute walk around the block, 3 if Argos is to be kept happy, took us the better part of 15-20 minutes at Cordy's distracted-munchkin pace.

When we got back to the house, she still wasn't ready to go inside, so I let the dog in and let Cordy try to drag me around the block again. I stopped her at the property line and instead made a snowball that I threw at her. She thought that was hilarious, so we started making snowballs to throw at Argos who was staring dejectedly at us out the front window.

Cordy's unfortunately tiny hands aren't capable of turning fluffy powder into solid masses of snowy ice, so I was quickly converted from a daddy into a snowball manufactory dedicated to the cause of supplying my offspring with ammunition that never launched straight. That got old after a grueling 20 seconds and I started rolling my next snowball into a snowman body. Cordelia was momentarily upset by this change, until she realized daddy was making a big ball (“bau?” she said). The snow was PERFECT yesterday. The snowman took me no more than 5 minutes to build. The hardest part was rolling his lower segment up our steep front yard so he could stay in the shade of the house and hopefully last a few days.

Anyway, here's a picture!


By the way, he's currently faceless, because I was getting concerned by Cordelia's purpling hands. She has mittens, but since we hadn't been planning on playing in the snow, and she had been in such a hurry to leave, we didn't bother finding them. And since she freaked out for the two seconds it took me to fetch the camera, I don't imagine I could have spent any time looking for them once we had started playing in the snow, either.