It was yesterday, while shoveling the driveway, that it officially happened: we started running out of places to put the snow.
We've been building a mountain by the driveway - on the side where there isn't a giant bush in the way - and yesterday it just got too big. Most of the snow wouldn't go over it; and on the near side, the incline just drove the snow down the hill, back into the driveway.
It's been snowing about twice a week in our neck of the woods, every week since the day after Christmas. One storm is kinda light - that's the snow we're having today, too - and one is pretty heavy, anywhere from 6 to 12 inches or so. Twice a week. The heavy snow is usually Tuesday, or Wednesday.
The snow has tested us, up here in the land that's near snow country, but usually isn't like living down the road from a ski resort. We were pretty sure we knew how to drive in snow. We don't wonder anymore. We used to just shut down... that's not really possible twice a week. Errands must be run, groceries bought, there's work to be done.
But we're worn down. This isn't funny anymore. And it's well beyond annoying. It's kind of the dull resignation of "oh well, here it comes again."
In the end, I stepped back and devised a solution to our mountain problem: I dug a trench through the snow in the yard, and lowered the mountain from the opposite side. And a very kind gentleman pulled up and cleared the final section from our driveway to the street with his snow blower. For free. That's what it's come to: the kindness of strangers, the aid of technology, and the creativity to think differently about an age old problem.
I don't spend a lot of time fretting about global warming. As much as I accept that the problems we're having are man made... I don't really believe that they can just be undone. We can make efforts to not make global warming worse - that's the point of reducing consumption, carbon emissions and the rest - but reversing the effects? I don't see it.
What I see, out my window... is more snow. And a series of weather systems that are nothing like anything I've expereinced in winter anywhere on the East Coast. Unlike many, the snow hasn't beaten me down, convinced me it's time to move to Arizona (Florida? Seriously?), made me love winter less, or long for the change of seasons. If anything, the repeated snowfalls have reminded me that winter, in its crisp whites, is a beautiful, awesome thing.
But I got to tell ya... we're running out of places to put it.
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