Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

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! :)

My current wallpaper on my home laptop.  This picture was taken last Thursday afternoon.  The snow definitely looks good on the tress and on the ground.  It is also nice to have them on the trails.  Why?  Coz the boys will lick the snow to quench their thirst.  This year winter is so far the longest ever with dipping temps below zero for many, many days.  Today is a heat wave.  The temperature shot up to 39 F and the sun was bright.   A lot of the snow melted.  There are hardly any snow left on the trees.  Of course there are aplenty on the ground.  I think after the end of this week, most of it will be gone.  The weather guys forecasted the weather to be in the 40’s and daylight saving time begins this weekend, too.  Yikes!!!  We are going to loose an hour of sleep coz we need to set our clocks forward an hour.  DOG GONE IT!

I took Ranger out to the trails on Friday afternoon. The other two were busy playing tug of war. Walking Ranger by himself is less stressful than when I walk him and Cooper together. I guess Cooper is too fast for Ranger so I have to hurry Ranger along.

Anyways, here are some of the pics I took of Ranger when we got to the trails.

*The start of the trails. Ranger going out of my sight!*

*Fallen tree from last year’s summer storm*

*Untouched…*

*Ranger running towards me*

The above picture of Ranger is my favorite.  The poor boy was aching after he got back from his fun filled walk.  And he is still walking slow today.  I had a good hike myself that day.

And finally, a Safety meeting held under the tree on our backyard…I thought it’s cute to see the both of them together.

*Chase and Ranger*

These pictures were taken yesterday afternoon while sitting at the lights waiting for my left turn light. 

*The driver side window.

*White out condition from snow and strong winds

The drive home was horrible.  The car is a front wheel drive. it totally didn’t help driving on this type of road conditions.  The car was fish tailing a lot.  Had to go like 25 mph all the way home.  Took me an hour and 20 mintues to get home and once I got home, the car was stuck on the drive way!  The car couldn’t get up the slopy driveway.  Snow is pretty to look at but to drive on it, it totally sucks to high heaven. 

We had a total of at least 7 inches.  Spring snow storms are nasty.  Drop a bunch and good thing the sun is high in the sky, it still melts the snow even the temps are in the teens.  The fresh snow fall will be nice to walk on when we hit the trails this afternoon.

Yet another cold front approaching us that will bring us a good 3 – 6 inches of snow. It’s already started snowing and the weather guys said the snow will stop not till tonight. The past couple of weeks we had temperatures in the upper 30’s fahrenheit. A lot of the snow on our back and especially the front yard were almost gone. Then we had 2 days of 1 – 3 inches of of snow fall that whiten the yards again but it didn’t stay very long because of the warm temperature. Our 9-year old metal shovel broke on us. I was hoping for some kind of sale at the hardware store for snow shovels, but nope. We had to pay full price for a metal shovel and DB bought an ergonomic shovel which is lighter in weight, made of fiber glass. DB had the opportunity to use the ergonomic shovel and his feedback, “What a waste of money!” Nothing beats the metal shovel. Woks like a charm.