Today’s sunshine made me especially grateful.

First, the rest of the snow-on-our-driveway story. My son, Hugh, went outside with our garden spade late on Wednesday afternoon and hacked away the ice-snow on our front walk. Our service guys still had not appeared by Thursday morning so Hugh and I went out around 11 a.m. and started working again.

The snow was so weird – two or three inches of fluffy dry snow covered with a good one and a half inches of compacted icy snow. Shoveling was really icebreaking – push the flat bottom spade underneath the ice, crack the surface and then shovel over the pile you’d made. I could crack the surface into rubble but did not have the strength to hurl the stuff away.

Side bar: I am astonished and dismayed by how much weaker I have become, physically, over the past couple of years! I’m not a gym rat but I am sturdy and reasonably able and I’m accustomed to being able to do things easily. Suddenly I cannot reach things on the second shelves of my cupboards, open tightly closed containers and pull up tabbed can tops. What gives? Grr – aging only beats the alternative, fer shure. (grumble)

Hugh and I cleared a path to the car in our driveway (our Bolt EV) so I could get inside and turn on the car’s defroster. That way the ice on top the car could start melting away from the body for removal. We brushed off as much as we could and then went back to driveway clearing.

Before we got far, here came our plow buddies – at last!!! – to clear things away. Boy, they had a real system! Five of them cleared our 35 foot long iced over driveway in under ten minutes.

I was so grateful and relieved to be able to get out!! I gave each one of them a tip (I will pay their company when billed for the removal, too). I cannot say for sure but I think I suddenly got two inches taller as they worked, that much stress left me! Whew!

As soon as they were done, Hugh and I got into the car and went to Wegman’s to buy groceries. We ate in the food court first (I had a really great selection of sushi for lunch) and then took our time shopping. Over lunch we had decided on a menu for the coming week and racked our brains to make a list (hoping not to forget anything important). 🙂

The store was crammed with other shoppers – but everyone was being so NICE I was startled. Smiles, helpfulness – the common culture here is to be polite (usually) when necessary but not to get involved with people around you much – no meeting of the eyes, no nods hello to strangers, etc. (Not like the Midwest I’m more used to). I guess all the stress in our country right now is having some good side effects?

By the time we finished shopping, schlepped our groceries home an d put them away, it was 5 p.m.! We spent the entire day on chores. We were both so tired; off I went to take a nap and I think Hugh did, too. 🙂

Today (Friday) was the usual Sewing Together afternoon with my friends Barbara and Patty. So gloriously wonderful to be with friends and do things I enjoy! I managed to get all the pieces cut out for my next Riley Blake door banner:

This is the quilt they created to feature the year’s designs. I was working on the Valentine banner (center block, top row). Their fabrics were very generous so I have some pretty leftover bits to make something fun with later. I have actually made all the blocks (I made mine into independent hangings) in the horizontal rows two and three. The schoolhouse is still on my front door as I type.

Barbara had dug out a huge (by my standards … several hundred anyway) bunch of sixteen patch blocks and started sorting them into color-ish piles for quilt assembly. We put together a twin quilt set of pink themed blocks … and then Patty laid out a second set of yellow themed ones. Pretty!

Tomorrow I have to take my brother grocery shopping. I hope to get some time for picking up in my sewing room (need to find my various embroidery threads). I also have to write up my next crazy quilt tutorial/lesson this weekend. Fingers crossed.

🙂 Linda