We started yesterday with bare grass and now we have somewhere in the vicinity of eight inches of snow, approximately. Take it all back. We had managed to rid ourselves of so much snow! We had dry bare grass. False spring really sucks. We have mounds of snow on either side of the driveway again. We are no longer cleared edge to edge because the new snow is too powdery to pile up properly. It has to be pushed to the lawn side of our driveway. I’m hot, sweaty, and irritated as all fuck. In the back of my mind I knew, just knew it was way too early to hope we were done with major snow dumplings. But I saw sunlight. I felt grass. It was sweater weather, and that voice faded just enough for this storm to kick me in the balls. Fuck you.
I’ve had to shovel twice now. Not only that but it’s now minus twelve, and blowing the snow about a little bit. If this season could just go someplace else for the next six months or so It’d be much appreciated. Just piss off. Pack your kit, and fuck all the way off. You can take the freezing rain, flurries, and wind chill factor with you while you’re at it.
Saturday, the first day of March break. Great day for those who ski downhill or cross country. They can get another day or two of runs in. I hear we are in for a wild mix of both positive, and negative temperatures the next nine days, so it’s likely to be mucky outside after this latest dump of snow goes soft and slushy. What a waste of outdoor time. We could have started yard clean up, and washed patio furniture, and played ball hockey in the driveway. Gone to use the swings at the park. I could have looked over the bicycles, greased the chains, inflated the tires, dusted off our helmets and taken a family tour about town. But no. We had more snow, so we aren’t going to do any of that.
To be honest, outside of work I had high hopes for starting some wood working projects because the weather was so agreeable. I will likely still have to wait until late April for that. I did sneak in some farm runs to clear out wood scraps & junk.bso I’m not totally upset about how this new weather development shook out. I am disappointed by it, but I’m not hindered in any sort of way. I have a lot of work coming in the next two weeks with a heavy deadline of the 25th, so I didn’t expect to get to spend all that much time in my shop. Sometimes just ten minutes to sit and admire the space is all I get, and that makes me happy too. After all the paid work allows for the hobby. That an slow periods where I’m not focused on cleaning, laundry, or purging the house of clothes and junk. I can get pretty easily distracted by the opportunity to clear out space around our tiny little bungalow. If I felt like it, I could buy some junk wood to screw down a “floor” in the attic, to give us some more places to put long term storage items. But issue with that is it doesn’t solve the “after we’re gone” clean up issue. It just puts untold amounts of stuff out of sight. I do believe there are things up there already from previous tenants, and owners of this house.
Once we were granted access to that dumpster I had a good look around the house, and besides the things I was able to toss in there, and the water softener, and accompanying brine tank, we don’t have a tonne of trash to get rid off. Yeah the children are clothes horses, and we have far too many shoes, boots, coats, hats and mitts for a family of our size. But you wouldn’t throw that away, you’d donate it to the needy, or younger cousins in the family. I think we had some ceiling tiles, old trim, and a set of blinds that don’t fit our windows, but it’s not really enough to warrant us getting our own dumpster, nor pulling the laundry room apart to be rid of those few items I just mentioned. I’m unbothered by them at this point. I think that stuff, plus whatever is in the attic could go to the dump as one load in our van, potentially with room to spare. I’ve done a very good job of winnowing our stuff down over the last four or five years. Try as they might to restock the house with things, I’ve got most spaces pared right down. Well except the Tupperware cabinet in the kitchen, for some reason we have a differing count of kids to vessels. They don’t all match, or work together. It’s an irritant point of mine. But I digress.
I want to keep some things for when (and if) our kids have families of their own, but I also don’t want the house full to the brim with everything under the sun. It’s a hard balance to strike. Be prepared for become grandparents in twenty years versus having a cleaner, and more spacious feeling house. I wrestle with it constantly.
Our friends have just moved and I am envious of the amount of space they all now have, but my kids would still play directly underfoot, regardless of how much bigger their bedrooms got, or the basement became, or the introduction of a living room, and family room, and sitting room, plus a dining room as separate spaces that could be occupied and enjoyed all at once, individually! A bigger primary bedroom, with walk in closet, and an en suite bathroom! Oh to dream! But on the other hand our mortgage is paid off so there’s that to contend with. Why move just to have to take on a whole new, and much larger mortgage? that’s ludicrous. In a few short years the kids will be in high school, and out & about with friends, and then off to college, university, or trade school of some sort. Before long this house will feel both quiet, and empty(ish). Given this economy I think the kids will be with us for quite some time. Likely until they are married, or something along those lines. But again, I digress.
So the long and the short of it is, fuck the snow, yay to spring cleaning, no need for any more major purges because I’ve likely gotten to it already, and while a bigger house sounds awesome, we’re all paid off, and the kids will make themselves scarce in only a few minutes.
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