Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

Picture taken in the morning while it was still snowing lightly. I didn’t go in to work coz of my sickening throat. Took the picture to see where the grill is….so much for trying to get some grilling in!

This was taken right after the snow stopped. We went out to take pictures and walk on the fresh snow!

And so happen it was also trash and recycle day.

Yep that’s DB standing there…looks like he is supervising those recycle guys but he was not. He was trying to shovel a path for me.

Front of the house

Side of the house by the garage.

Nice untouched snow till……

…this fella found a stick.

Doesn’t care how deep the snow is, he still wants to fetch!

At least the boys didn’t venture over here…..nice and smooth, somewhat.

Cooper wants Chase’s stick but he is getting slower now. Heart is willing but legs are not.

This is Ranger’s walking route.  He so want to climb up the snow banks and snoop near the woods.  I don’t let him coz of his bad leg.

The snow is piling high on the patio. Snow started on Monday late morning and didn’t stop till Wednesday noon.

As soon as the snow stopped, I went out with the boys, Cooper and Chase to the park. Ranger I had to walk him separately from the other 2. The weather was nice in the 20’s F. Snow on the streets was melting after the plows went through. This was taken about 2 hours after the plows came by. Can see black on the roads!

The elementary school field

Fresh snow this kid was sledding right after school.

In the trails, just beautiful…untouched till me and the two boys came along!

Tried getting a picture of the two together…but Cooper is too damn camera shy! Notice Chase’s missing teeth? One big empty gap with missing tooth and a fang? It’s the same on the other side. But he still could chew his rawhides down in seconds.

Finally, he looked over and stayed put!

It’s slowly warming up.  Temps for this week is going up to the 30’s.  Woohoo….it will be slushy and wet out which I hate when walking the dogs….coz I hate wiping them down.  I know part of the parcel of owning dogs but I just hate doing it…usually will have the man do it.

The two paths created by the boys in our backyard.  The above picture was taken early January where temp was still in single digits or lower.  Nice clear skies but damn deceiving tho.  The dogs will create paths after the big snowfall in December and after each snowfall, they will still go back to the paths to go do their business.   Under those snow, it some ice too, thanks to the Christmas above freezing temperature, 36 F.  Then over night it freezes when temp drops to the teens and then the Arctic temps creeped in in January.  Lovely!

The man said he is going to clear the snow on the patio!  Why bother i said.  They are hard like a rock.  Let the new owners take care of it!!!  :)  Tho we have not heard back from the stupid bank, we don’t know when we need to close on the house, I just assume if we move out in end of February or March, the snow will not go anywhere.  Snow loves Minnesota.  It will hang around till mid-April or May!

Yesterday was the longest drive home ever for me since I started with company. It took me 1 hour 15 minutes to get home which normally takes 25 minutes max.   It started snowing early Thursday morning and by the time it was time to get home at 2:30 pm, snow was lighter and the sun was outl.  Really weird.

There was an accident on 35E South the freeway I use Monday thru Friday back and forth.  The moment I took the exit to 35E South, I came to a halt.  Me and other cars ahead of me sat there for about 15 minutes before we actually made a tiny move.  Good thing I took a pee before I left work.

So what you do when you sit in the car with n0thing to do…take pictures lah.  Don’t have my camera with me, so have to use the phone camera.  Not good pictures tho.   While taking pictures, tow trucks, State troopers and city cop cars’ zoomed by the shoulder of the freeway. When I finally got out to 35, the battle to merge with the cars already in the lane….hate that but this nice old man let me in….bless his kind heart.

Sat there for another couple mintues and finally started to creep/brake till I saw the colorful flashing lights from the cop cars and that’s where the cars in front me merged to the left lane (middle lane).  Put on the blinkers but no one let me in…..of coz I started cussing lah, KNN!!!  Finally after 4 vehicles passed me, a lady stopped to let me merge.  So sweet of her….bless her kind heart! :)

After this shot, I dared not take anymore….cops were everywhere plus sirens firing behind me – paramedics, fire truck and more paramedics. As soon as I got closer to the accident scene, it looked mighty nasty, I recognized the spot where accidents always occur. It’s the bend before Difley Road exit. Must be a “bad” spot! :)  Cantonese word “chaay”, with a descending tone.  Don’t know, I saja only.

The accident involving a tanker (don’t see any damage on that sucker); a Toyota pickup with the windshield and passenger window totally shattered; a car sitting in the ditch with the front bumper and hood smashed like a pancake; and another car sitting up in the tow truck bed with damage to the back and front bumpers and smashed windshield. I didn’t see any people in those said vehicles.

Of course after car passed by the accident scene, traffic it was flowing freely!!! GAWKERS!!!! There were also 2 more cars on the South side of the freeway in ditches and 1 more on the North. These cars must be going fast. I tried going 50+ mph and the Monte was already fish tailing.  So had to go 45 mph.

Needless to say when I got home, I had to park the car on the street and my workout began….clearing the 3 inches of snow. Bah!!!  The car could not even go all the way up, stucked half way on the driveway.

It was a snow day for me yesterday. Boss lady called me in the morning to stay home and so I happily did and finally had a chance to watch a movie.

The picture below was taken around noon, minutes before I went out to clean the driveway.

I reckon there was 7 inches of snow on my driveway. Shovelled my way out of the drifting snow at the top of the driveway. It didn’t help to have a crappy shovel either. My favorite shovel is missing a screw at the bottom and it totally sucks. So I was switching in between the ergonomic type shovel (supposely better for the back) that to me is useless. Hated it.  The city snow plows came through and packed the end of the driveway.

The neighbor across came over with his snow blower when he was done with his driveway.  I was still shovelling the upper 1/4, he started to work the 1/4 end of the driveway.  He said it’s way too much snow to be shovelling and his snow blower does not do well with packed snow.  Less than 5 minutes of him helping, he had to get back to his house since the COIT (carpet and upholstery cleaners) guys came.  He left the snow blower runing and asked if I know how to use it.  Hell no!  He sort of told me what to do, and so I took over where he stopped.  My ever first time using a snow blower.  It took all of my energy for the day to get 3/4 of the driveway cleared up.  It would be easier if the driveway is not so hilly.  Keeping my balance and pushing/controller that sucker was a bitch!!!  Plus the wind was blowing like frigging crazy yesterday.  I don’t even know what the temp was when i was out there, 15F (-9C), I think, and windchill must minus something.  I know I was sweating crazy and my face was stinging!

When I was towards the end of the snow packed driveway, the blower died!  Darn, it’s either out of gas or I screwed it up.  So I turned it off, left it there and used the shovel.  I was glad I was able to clear up the rest of the driveway, but was I tired, very very tired…my shoulders and back are calling out in desperation for a rest.  I wanted to but then I saw that much left to do, I continued.  So I kept digging and finally the COIT guys left, the neighbor came back and I telling him his snowblower died.  He was ok with it, he dragged it back to his garage and came back with his shovel.   It definitely makes a big difference having a man shovel snow and a teeny weeny pruney like me working with the shovel.  He got so much done so fast.  I thank him a million times for his help.  This was not the first time he helped me with the driveway.  He definitely “Love thy neighbor”!

After the clean up of the driveway and front entrance, went out to the patio to clear the snow by the patio door and entrance and also made a path so the boys won’t come trudging back in with snow.  With all these clean up, I still the boys out for their walks: Ranger a short little 20 minutes for him.  The other two Cs I took them to the trails by our house.  That’s the walks they are going to get for the rest of this week.  The high for today is 7F (-13C) and Friday is not getting any better.  So I’m just going to rest my poor achy body and stuff myself with carbs!  I’m constantly hungry since yesterday’s workout.

So much for a snow day of wanting to do nothing but relax!!!!! :(  DB said he is feeling super duper rotten and he better be! :)