Snow Season

I hate shoveling the snow. I always hated it. I always will.

Since beautiful Urbana got about ten inches of snow between yesterday and today, I spent the past two days shoveling! Yesterday was the worst. I was outside from 11am to 3:10pm just shoveling. There was one span of time in which I just stood, not moving, looking at the remaining snow that had to be shoveled. Since it was late I didn't have too much snow left, but my back was hurting, my fingers were hurting, and I was damn cold and tired. But I had to finish.

I did.

When I came inside the first thing I did was completely undress at the bottom of the stairs down to my skivvies. I didn't want to track wet snow all through the house. I went upstairs and turned on the shower. Yes! I waited for this! I've been waiting to unthaw my body since I've been working so hard outside. I made sure the shower was warm, but not too hot. I got naked and stepped under the shower. Suddenly, the areas of my body that experienced the most cold -- my thighs, butt, and face -- had the weirdest sensation come over them. The water was both hot and cold at the same time.

I freaked out a little bit.

I turned down the temperature of the water to luke-warm, but that weird dual-temperature sensation still persisted, although not as severely. Basically I turned myself around under the luke-warm shower-head, like a rotisserie chicken, to bring my surface temperature back to normal. Eventually I achieved normalcy. I washed my body, dried off, and got back in my pajamas!

Today there was more snow on the areas I did yesterday. I would estimate the snow drifts redeposited approximately two inches of snow back in the driveway. I spent about one hour and fifteen minutes clearing snow again. I then also shoveled some of the sidewalks, since Urbana expects its citizens to shovel state-owned property.

Now I am sitting here experiencing a sense of accomplishment. I am about to enjoy a delicious lunch -- a lunch that I think I earned today. I feel pretty good.

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