ice melt is evil in a plastic bag

So, it’s been a while. I’ve been partying too much lately, and it has been a long time since I’ve had a night to myself at home. Funny how my big night in is a Friday, but we don’t live your typical 9/5, Monday/Friday lifestyle here.

We’ve had a lot of snow lately, and I have been busy shoveling at the shop and at home. We need the moisture desperately, but I am sick of it already. This morning, though, there was ice fog on my way to work – talk about a winter wonderland! It was beautiful and left a thick layer of hoarfrost on all of the trees. They were magical. Later in the morning, the cold, distant winter sun shone, giving brilliant light but no warmth. The hoarfrost rained from the trees as the wind blew and looked like sakura petals falling fragile and white to the ground.

Monday it was snowing like gangbusters, if gangbusters did indeed snow. I was having a hard time keeping the sidewalks clean, when some old guy came into the shop. The conversation went like this:

Barista: May I help you?

Old Guy: You need to get out there and clean your sidewalk. It is too hard for me to ride my bike.

Barista: She was just out there shoveling. It is snowing pretty hard, and I’m sure she’ll get right out there and clean it again.

Old Guy: Well, I’m going to complain to the city.

How the conversation should have gone (if we weren’t in a customer service business):

Barista: May I help you?

Old Guy: You need to get out there and clean your sidewalk. It is too hard for me to ride my bike.

Barista: It is snowing as fast as she shovels, so give her a break. And, it is illegal to ride your bike on the sidewalk in this town, so get back on the street where you belong, you old fart.

A friend of mine went with me to Mass on Christmas Eve. I usually go all of the way into town, because I am kind of embarrassed to go to our church here. Also, the church is just a sore memory for me. But, the weather was so bad that we didn’t feel like battling crappy roads in my action Corolla. I sucked it up and went for the first time since my husband left me. It was true to its extremely small town nature – the choir sucked, as did the piano player, but what they lacked in talent they made up with genuine Christmas spirit – they were all wearing red sweaters. Our priest is very sick and is undergoing Chemo, so we had a substitute. He was this awesome Nigerian guy, and I really enjoyed what he had to say. Every homily is supposed to have that zinger, the takeaway and his was that JOY means Jesus and Others before Yourself. That is a pretty good message, and an awesome one if you figure English is not his native language. He said that this week was the first time he’d ever seen snow, which was cool, as well.

I went snowshoeing for the first time this winter – that’s a workout, but fun especially when you have a happy dog or two along. We wore them out. One of them was a corgi and she got snow balls all tangled in her belly fur. Corgis are good dogs. When my daughter’s aging cat dies, I think I want a dog of my own, instead of always loving on other people’s .