Rich to the Rescue

Mater natura dropped a load of snow on us yesterday and today.  Depths vary from place to place, but I had 4-5 inches in the driveway and a half-foot elsewhere.  Moreover, this was not the light, fluffy powder which has been typical this winter, but a heavy, wet, icy snow.  Snowman snow.

That's why I got bogged down in the driveway this morning — just a couple feet from my garage door! — when I ended up with ice under the front wheels and deep snow fore and aft.  Patience, shoveling, and generous application of ice melter got me unstuck after an hour or so.  Very embarrassing!  And this is the first time in three winters that my little car has gotten stuck.

Rich scrapes the driveway clean...

...and then heads off to his next driveway.

The snow tapered off about 2:00, and a couple hours later Richard arrived to plow the driveway.  He would have come sooner, but people with disabled snow blowers kept flagging him down and begging his help.  I felt somewhat less chagrined when his 4WD pickup (with a heavy load of firewood in the bed) had trouble getting traction on my driveway.

Meanwhile, my horse trainer friend John tells me that some of his horses are already shedding their winter coats.  That usually signals an early, warm summer.  Animals often do a better job forecasting the weather than we humans! •••