Where Did I Put That Shovel?

Well, the weather changed to the winter side of the calendar today. I was sitting in Tim Horton’s and there was rain, then some sleet and finally snow pellets. It always seems to come as a bit of a surprise, no matter how prepared you are for the change.

It wasn’t terribly cold, just hovering around zero C, but considering that it was 25° yesterday it is a wake up call. It’s funny how when it dips down to freezing or just below freezing in the fall it feels so cold, but come February the same temperature is cause to leave your coat unbuttoned and maybe even carry it on your arm. Same thing, different perspective.

 

I have been helping my son with the building of the Great Wall, He and his wife call it a fence, but if we are ever invaded I plan to make my stand in their backyard. Even though the weather had turned a little ugly, it was what I consider pretty good working weather…if you are dressed for it. Yes, it was a little muddy, I should have worn a toque instead of a ball cap, and it was more comfortable wearing gloves than not wearing gloves, but not really that bad all in all. His lovely wife Tara (the job supervisor), told us that we were nuts and decided to supervise from the heated comfort of the house. We soldiered on and made pretty good progress until the light and near frozen extremities caused us to pack it in. We will be able to finish on the next good day and since the forecast is calling for snow tomorrow there is a good chance that we will get a break.

I just read Brendan’s Facebook comment about the work tonight. “Learned a valuable lesson about asking for help with yard work from a man who literally took an oath to ignore the weather...” It isn’t true of course, but he is more right than wrong. You do get used to working out in all kinds of weather and just sort of shrug off the unpleasant days, focusing on the nice ones. I remember telling Louise once when we were watching some guys that were doing repairs on hydro lines in the winter, that “I’m glad I don’t work outside!” She looked at me like I was an idiot and said “You do work outside...IDIOT!”

My point was that even though I did technically work outside, I was continually moving and generating warmth whereas those poor buggers had to work standing still. Big difference.

I brought in the last of the tomatoes and did a very little winterizing. It will warm up again soon enough and I will do the big push then. Our leaves are still mostly on the trees and the ducks haven’t even elected the flight leader yet. I guess they are in the primaries.

Well, tomorrow is another day and there is a possibility that I may need to shovel a couple of centimetres before heading out in the morning. Now, where did I put that shovel?