“Remoted” Workday 213 / Day 323 (Tuesday)

Moose, aka “Little Big Ben,” barked me awake at 5:20 this morning. It was not amusing. There was no point fighting with him, so it was out of bed and directly into some snow pants over the pajamas.

The first peek outside revealed lots of snow. The wind seemed to have done some crazy directional shifts and snow was plastered to the siding and the screens all around the house. The back storm door had snow pasted to the corners of the glass creating a vignette effect I’ve seen only in movies (and which I deemed fake). It looked like it had been sprayed with the canned decorator snow found at Christmastime.

Opening the doors was challenging because snow had drifted against them. The back door shovel was outside (it doesn't match the kitchen decor), which is usually not an issue, but this morning, it was in a drift. A path was cleared on the deck and Moose ventured out, only to find himself up to his belly in snow on the stairs. He stood there paralyzed and perplexed as I shoveled around him to clear the stairs and continue with the potty path.

Moose and the snowbank.

Back inside, coffee was started, the Canine Overlords were fed, and then it was back outside to tackle the front door. The snow had drifted deep against the front door, but at least the front door shovel was inside the enclosed porch. It took about 30 minutes to fight my way out the door and clear the front stairs and walkway to the gate. The depth of the snow was about halfway up the four foot tall fencing. The path was taller than Moose when he finally ventured out. 

By 6:30, enough shoveling had been done for the dogs to easily exit the house, but not enough for them to get more than a few feet away. There was more shoveling to do, but it felt important to pace things. There was no need inviting a heart attack before having coffee. Keeling over in the snow wearing my pajamas underneath snow pants and coat is not a scene I want to enact. It was a snowy day, but not a snow day, and it was time to start getting ready for the rest of it by dressing, drinking coffee, and plowing through emails and social media before work.

Even the shed door
is drifted in.

At 2:00, after the usual Tuesday team meeting, it was time for another shovel session. The plan was to open the front gate and shovel the other side, and clear the car before the predicted temperature drop. The snow pants and parka went on over the work clothes. Beyond the front gate, a path had already been cleared across the front of the house and the trash and recycle bins, over to the cleared part of the driveway shared with neighbor guy who installed the fencing over the summer. That was a nice surprise.

It was back through the house and out the back door to tackle the car, which had miraculously already been cleaned off by someone from the multifamily house on the other side of me. It was good neighbor day all around. That left just clearing a path to the car and then around the car. The downfall of the new front yard fence is having to toss the snow up and over the four-foot height. Holy heck that is an added level of difficulty to the snow rearranging. 

After breaching the snowbank left by the plow to get the car out if needed, it was time to go back inside and finish the rest of the workday. I was too warm in the coat and thirsty. The clock indicated it had been a 40-minute athletic recess, and the dogs, who refused to come out with me, had been inside barking the entire time I was in the driveway. 

The shoveling was tiring, and battling the confines of the snow path and the barking seem to have exhausted the Canine Overlords. The household should sleep well tonight. Maybe we can sleep all the way until 6:00 in the morning tomorrow.