Snowy Days? A Good Book and Hot Cocoa #mfrwauthor

Welcome to Week 2 of the MFRW 52-week challenge. The topic is "What do you do on snowy days?"

Thankfully snow is scarce and light in my current neck of the woods. Businesses and schools don't close. A quick swipe clears the dusting of snow off of cars.

The prompt brought back memories so I'll focus on snow days from my youth. The answer to what do you do on snowy days is short and simple. Shovel...warm up... shovel...repeat. Even though a tractor-pulled sledge helped clear a path down the lane (or around the largest snow drifts) there were places that had to be shoveled for the tractor to bull its way through.

Once the main road was reached meant more shovelling. The car that had been left at the end of the lane had to be cleared, but the hardest work was around the mailbox and across the end of the lane. Besides drifted snow, the several foot high pile of snow-ice-frozen slush pushed up by snow plows had to be moved. Once access was gained to the outside world, we walked back to the house, changed into clothes warmed by the fire, had some hot cocoa, and collapsed on the coach with a good book.

One storm presented a challenge when wind-driven snow piled into drifts more than six feet high along the lane, and even higher in the fields. During one such storm, the local National Guard tank used for emergency transport rolled across the top of the drifts without breaking through.

More recent memories of snow days were not as dramatic. Although throwing snow onto a pile that towers above your head gets old very quickly. The day went thus.

• Clear a path from the back door to the cars, 
• Clear the car and business van
• Shovel a car width path to where the snowplow went down the street (The plow didn't always go curb to curb, but one swipe down the middle.)
• Remove the huge frozen pile of snow/ice the snowplow pushed up (This usually has to be done at least twice. One day I was so tired that when the plow came down the street the fourth time that morning and pushed all the snow into our drive, I stood at the end of the driveway. )
• Shovel the front steps and create a path from the plowed zone to the mailbox
• Clear a path from the street to the elderly neighbors' front door so ambulance and EMS can get in if need be
• Drive to the next town and clear parents' sidewalk, steps, driveway and car
• Return home and if sun hasn't melted snow off the slate sidewalk, clear it
• Collapse for a few hours
• Cook dinner? I don't think so. There's just enough energy to walk down the block to the local diner.

To all those still living up north, faced with piles of snow, think of warm sunny days of summer, have a hot cocoa, and open a good book.

~till next time, Helen

I forgot to signup for last week so there won't be the detailed list of participants. You can find them here.