Snow roulette and giving up giving up.

If I hear one more person ask "Did you get a lot of snow?", I will hit someone. We just had a winter storm blow through over the weekend. EVERYONE got a lot of snow.

My morning were spent shoveling. So were parts of the afternoon. One should get down to the end of the drive when the snow plows come through and clear their dumpage away quickly before any of it can freeze. Not like it was going to freeze this weekend (temps in the 30s), but it is just good practise.

That is what I did yesterday. Got out there and cleaned the wet, heavy, slush infested "snow" off the walks and drive. I watched the plow come by and maneuver around the neighbor's car. Because of where the car was parked, maybe half a foot of snow was dumped, instead of 2-3 feet. Hey, I will take that any day.

The plow came by again, this time making the same move and dumping nothing into the drive. Nice! But then I saw something troubling. The neighbor came and moved the car. Now there would be about 15 feet of unobstructed street with at least a foot of snow primed to be plowed right my clean, open space. To say this bothered me would be an understatement.

Each time I heard a plow, I looked outside to see which way they were coming. If I was going to have to shovel the drive again, I wanted to see the carnage take place. I wanted to see how bad it was going to be so I could curse out someone. Then I could attack the snow and be done with it.

But it didn't happen. In fact, the next thing I noticed was the plow going the other way. Wait, he just went west to east, not east to west. That isn't usually a good thing either. I pile up snow around a telephone pole that basically divides my drive from the alley drive. It is roughly 2 feet wide. If they go west to east, I still get a lot dumped.

With a sense of dread, I walked to the kitchen window and peaked out.

Nothing.

Nothing? How could there be nothing?

Apparently the plow drive did not cut the bank close to the curb and hit it at my drive. All the snow that would have been dumped on me from both sides was now cleared away. It did bury one car pretty good. and left more snow behind it. If the city comes by once again today, I can expect to receive some of it even though it is 20 feet from my drive. At least that is my expectation.

But that won't be too bad. The foot of snow I need to clear off my mother's driveway will be fun.

Now that we are in the fun time of Lent, I once again have made the decision on what to fore go. Last year I was In Hell by giving up alcohol. In prior years I have given up beer, coffee, sweets, etc. All the stuff you love to have.

I though long and hard about what to give up for Lent this year. And in the end, one choice was clear. I am giving up giving up.

Yep, giving up giving up stuff for Lent. And that means everything. I am not holding myself to fish on Fridays (though I do enjoy fish fry's even if they make me uncomfortable) either. I figure I give up quite a bit of stuff throughout the year as it is. Think about it...I give up certain foods whenever I need to drop some pounds. I give up cash to charities. I give up my own time to take care of someone else's lawn care. I give help to friends when they need to be moved, or chop wood, or other stuff.

Hell, I give up a lot of things during the year. Thus, I am allowed to make myself the focus of my attention and do what the hell I want, when I want during Lent.

Hmm..probably not a good thing to use Hell and Lent in the same sentence, but I can because I gave up caring about it.