epiphany

Snowy morning

I hate snowblowers.

Well, hate is a strong word, but I do have a strong dislike for them. I imagine that if I had a snowblower of my own, I would appreciate them more. However, I do not have one, and my neighbor's drives me nuts. While I appreciate her kindness in blowing out our main sidewalk, when I see her out there with that machine, I want to run outside and shovel as quickly as is humanly possible. Why? Because her snowblower leaves about a quarter- or half-inch of snow on the sidewalks, which then gets packed down, doesn't melt, and compresses into ice.

Shoveling, on the other hand, may not completely clear off all the snow either. (Some remains in the cracks and texture of the walks.) But what does remain is so minimal that it melts away as soon as the sun comes out, even on a cold day. Because I went out this morning and cleared the walks thoroughly after my neighbor's snowblowing escapade, our sidewalks are nice this evening, whereas hers still have a layer of whitened ice forming.

Of course, I could have been a good person and cleared her sidewalks as well, but I wasn't, and I didn't.

Beyond clearing snow, today I talked with my home pastor about China, stocked up on some supplies for the coming semester in China (I leave on Sunday morning) and got a haircut. I've also been doing a lot of reading online. What I should do tonight is scan in some photos and send them to my friends, maybe even try to post a few to the blog.

We'll see.

Posted by at February 6, 2004 6:49 PM