April 16, 2018 - Monday
23 degrees/cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful...."

Not only was it snowing, it was cold early in the day

That's what we were singing yesterday as we looked outside and watched the snow pound down. By late Sunday afternoon, over a foot had fallen.



What do two people do when they are housebound, trapped in the middle of April by a snow that should have fallen two or three months prior? 

I went back to bed Sunday morning after writing and fell sound asleep listening to the wind howling just outside the window. Sargie was in that early morning dozing stage, happy it was her day off and in no hurry to join the rest of the world. 

It was late morning before we decided to get up and try to become productive citizens.

The day was spent watching television and grazing. I went from soup, to a few pieces of candy. Pretzels caught my eye. Sure, why not? Ah, peanuts. Honey roasted or plain? Why not both!

Feeding our faces and binge watching Criminal Minds on Netflix became our day. It was fun, just like an old fashioned snow day from our elementary school years. 

The snow began to lessen late in the afternoon. It was time to work off some of those thousands of calories that had earlier slid down my throat.

How to best remove the snow? Plow, snow blow, or shovel?

The snow was somewhat wet and heavy that would make plowing difficult, plus, the plow would need to be mounted onto the four wheeler. It's not a difficult procedure, but I wasn't feeling overly ambitious.

Shoveling was out of the question. I wanted to shed some calories, but didn't want to break my back. There was only one solution, the old, trusty, snow blower. 

It took an hour or two, but in the end, the drive was fairly clean. I cleared a path to the wood pile and another to the burning barrel. My outside obligations were finished.



Back inside, I resumed my grazing. I went for the granddaddy of junk food, a new ice cream sundae.

Should Ben and Jerry's, Dairy Queen, Tastee Freeze, or some other ice cream franchise decide to use this creation, I'm calling it my, "Snowy Day Surprise."



It consists of vanilla ice cream, crushed pretzels, and green grapes, all covered, ever so lightly so as not to bruise, with a spritz of maple syrup. (I have no idea what spritz means, but they use the term often on the Food Channel. I'm just throwing it out there so I can impress you with my culinary terminology.)

Sargie and I turned in fairly early last night. After a day of stress, hard work, and full bellies, our bodies demanded some quality sleep.

Sargie closes the Vision Center tonight. I'll finish cleaning the drive, go for my walk, then get serious about planning and estimating the lumber needed for the shop expansion. Despite the snow, I see highs are forecast for the mid fifties by the end of this week, the sixties shortly thereafter. It's that crazy time of year when global warming accompanied by normal temperatures can strike at any moment.

Time to shake, rattle, and roll.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...