“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 695 (Sunday) - snow labor

The snowed-in back door.

The words of former Fitchburg mayor Hedley Bray were half true. God put the snow there. And over there. And there. And basically everywhere. It was not taken away. Not overnight anyway. It was, however, today rearranged and relocated as it awaits the next step of its life cycle – melting and flowing to the drain in the street.

It took three shovel sessions. The first one was first thing in the morning when Winston needed to go out, and his potty path was extended to the gate nearest the driveway where the car is usually parked. The car was cleared except for the center of the roof that couldn’t be reached with the shovel from ground level. The bank left by the plow was cleared. Most of the snow was tossed over the picket fence into the front yard. The real adversary was behind the car, and a path was started to the drifted-in steps to the back door. 

The back snowfield.

The second shovel session cleared a path in the parking spot on the other side of the yard to provide a way for the mail carrier to access the other gate and the mailbox. It’s not quite wide enough to get the trash bin out to the curb, but the effort required to expand it was deemed too much. The trash bin holds one half-full bag of trash for a few hours each Monday, and it can wait until next week.

The third session was to finish digging out the snowdrift blocking the back door, and the short stretch along the side of the house to the gate to the back yard. It was the only way to achieve a vantage point to see if the vent pipes at the back of the house were obstructed by a snow drift or not. They are not.

The back yard is a snowfield. The wind sculpted rolling hills and small crested dunes accented with a  moiré pattern. There is one odd spot near the shed where the snow had blown off and a few bits of grass could be seen before the rise of the next swirled dune.

After the shifts in snow labor camp a reward was needed. During the pre-storm grocery run, instead of the familiar blue Swiss Miss and red Nestle Rich cocoa boxes, there was a row of yellow boxes of Abuelita Mexican hot cocoa mix and cocoa with separate Lucky Charms marshmallows. The Abuelita was bought and this was the reward made this afternoon. There is nothing in the ingredient list to suggest a special flavoring but this cocoa has a little something extra going on that is good. For the first time in ages, I actually drank the entire cup. There may be a new favorite house cocoa.