Well not really. Back in the Nutmeg State after nearly a month in Florida I am typing between shoveling expeditions as we are in the midst of yet another Nor’easter. Apparently after I left for warmer climes, Connecticut like much of the country, had been hit by wave after wave of bad weather. In the beginning, my wife was stoic and strong clearing the driveway, our paths to the front door and street as well as my greenhouse and cold frames. But as the weeks wore on, her diligence faded with any semblance of warmth leaving me when I returned a few days ago with piles of snow everywhere but the driveway to move. And instead of 70 degree weather it was 7; that’s right 7 degrees Fahrenheit.
As soon as we arrived on Tuesday I grabbed a shovel to start an icy excavation of many of the areas that Juana was unable or willing to clear. Luckily my kayak trip in the Everglades toughed up my shoulders and arms so I was easily able to transform paddling muscles to ones comfortable pushing snow. But after 90 minutes I was ready to retreat to indoors to warmer temps and take-out Chinese.
The next day was much of the same with final prep and shoveling before Thursday’s storm. Paddling and shoveling are similar activities in that they are continuous, purposeful, and slow. It takes a long time to get from point A to point B and you can get tired quickly and throw muscles easily. After hours you sometimes feel as if you have accomplished very little. One is in the warmth of the South while the other is only tried in the frigid North. Unlike a kayak trip, you head out for provisions after rather than before the task at hand.
It has been coming down fast and hard and by our ruler, we got nearly a foot of snow by mid-afternoon Thursday. Thankfully the snow slowed and a light rain started to coat the existing snow and will help weigh it down when I decide to make a final push later in the day.
This effort has been quite different from that of earlier in the week when I was trimming a coconut tree and ripping out a deck in my shorts and sneakers. As a coconut tree grows, the old fronts should be cut from its bark that look like overlapping layers of fraying burlap. It goes without saying the coconuts should be removed from heights that could prove dangerous. Newton’s popular inspiration for the universal law of gravitation might have not happened under a coconut tree.
Quickly garbage cans were filled with fronts as well as budding coconut flowers. As I picked up a garbage can, a scorpion scurried to a shady and covered spot. The closest thing to that up here was a vole that went scurrying after a shovel full of snow was tossed to the side. It ran up and down tracks in the road looking for a new tunnel; it was in a more difficult position than the scorpion.
In the South, we work when the bugs aren’t out. In the North, it is during the snow but after the rain.
The storm dumped more rain, sleet and snow on us Thursday evening and I awoke on Valentines Day to 4 inches of concrete-heavy snow and 3/4-inch thick snow-ice chips that coated the drive. Shovels were ineffectual against these latest insults so I spent the waking hours taking my ice scraper to rhythmically break up the ice and then shovel it away. Scrape, break and shovel. Hours on end. And tomorrow we are expecting more snow.
I think I have learned my lesson on going away for a long time.
