Snow, a beautiful moon, and a hell of a bruise

I thought the snow might be gone before I had a chance to blog about it.

It’s not.

I did post a Facebook status update about my inelegant fall down the concrete stairs at the back of my house.  I must say that I’m quite touched at how many people commented with their concern.

It was a hell of a fall, and one of those lucky moments in life.

Where I fell -- the whole way!
where I fell (the whole way)

I didn’t hurt my back or crack my head.  The only damage is a bruise that might keep me from sleeping on my left side for a couple of weeks — but it could  just as easily have been an occasion for an ambulance.

I was taking out the garbage.  We had had grouper for dinner on Saturday night, and there were fish bones in there.  It needed to go out.

I should have put the bag on the porch and shoveled the snow first.  Instead, I fell down the stairs first — landing on the ground, on my back — and then shoveled the snow.

When I was a kid, and when I was a teacher (for 24 years), I lived for snow days.  I even liked ice days, as long as we didn’t lose power.  Anything for a day off school.

I wanted time to write.  If there was a forecast for snow, I would try to predict how much and how long we’d be out of school– and I’d start planning a project and watching the sky.  Nothing was more joyful than getting up on a snowy day and taking a cup of coffee into my office, seeing the beautiful white coating outside my windows, knowing I had time to work on my own work.

Now that I’m self-employed as a Coffee News publisher, and largely make my own schedule, it seems like work never stops. I still love the snow, but don’t get the same thrill of vacation.

Last night, I had lots of recycling to take to the curb.  Today is our pick-up day.  I didn’t know if the city would pick-up today or not (they didn’t).  My neighbors didn’t have any garbage, trash, or recycling in front of their houses.

But I missed last week, and we have a lot of recycling.  We print about 12,000 papers each week, and a couple thousand come back.  These add up, and I usually carry them out with a hand truck.  Not possible in the snow.

So I made several trips to the curb last night, trudging through snow in my tennis shoes.

I’m glad I did.

It was quite cold, extremely clear, with a full moon.  The street was spectacularly beautiful — bright enough catch with an iPhone.

The street in front of my house. The top light is the moon.
the big light on top is the moon

This morning, I took a little more recycling out — and took a few pictures in the morning sun.

And tonight, there’s still plenty of snow on the ground — a pretty good run for this part of the world.

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