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.
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.
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.