Feet On Ice
Dec. 2nd, 2007 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormMore snow today - tons of it. I shovelled the walk out front just now, four to six inches of snow that had been rained on intermittently, and I think that to say there's tons of snow out there is an understatement at best. That stuff is heavy. I find myself a little ambivalent about this corner lot thing - it's a lot of walk to shovel and after a week of laying around in bed I'm so out of shape it's not even funny.
It's been a good day. I spent the other day with Eva, walking, and today I spent with Drew and with yet another Nick wandering around out there. I do so love being outside. It's more sleeting than snowing downtown (sealevel there, where at home we've got enough elevation to get proper snow cover) and when I got home my coat must've weighed an extra fifteen pounds. If CrazyChris hadn't taught me to layer way back when this would be miserable weather but as is I can dress for seven hours more-or-less straight out there and come home just starting to get chilly.
I find something very compelling about this snowfall. It's huge flakes poured down generously. The footing is awful because Vancouverites don't shovel and seldom plough. Snow confuses us. There are people out in it going from place to place and the snow, like the first few sunny days in spring, is an acceptable excuse to grin at people randomly. I love the feeling of isolation walking down a street with few footprints and the sound of heavy snow falling, and I love how it's broken by those moments of smiling contact. Even if people don't *like* the snow, a grin is understood in this context. It's not unusual or creepy, it's just something shared with a stranger and then gone.
Sundown is creeping in and the sky is a startling lavender colour right now. My house is my house. I do not envy anyone out there driving, particularly Angus who's on his way back from Seattle now and I really do hope gets home safe. Bob did the smart thing and cancelled his trip to Chilliwack with all this weather.
The snow brings out my big shovelling-walks pet peeve though. People need to shovel their sidewalks. Sure, you can't do it every second of every day, but just because you're reasonably able-bodied doesn't mean that everyone is, and some of those people need to leave their houses to get food, etc. If I'm slipping out there and falling (and I *am*), it's gotta be terrifying for people with mobility issues, and when the slush freezes up tonight it'll be 84578946892394567846 times harder to shovel tomorrow and just as dangerous. This is Sunday, it's a weekend, you have time to shovel, so be a civilised human being and do it.
This goes through my head with nearly every unshovelled walk, alas. I used to have some clients who had trouble going outside in this, and it's just not cool.
I need to get on that work hunt tomorrow, but I also need to go out for more walking as long as this lasts. A walk every day is making me a very happy person.
Enough with this. Time to reward myself for shovelling the walk with some tea and miso soup and rat snuggling. I wish I weren't out of books to read. Maybe I'll raid Ryan's Terry Pratchett novels -- any particular recommendations?
It's been a good day. I spent the other day with Eva, walking, and today I spent with Drew and with yet another Nick wandering around out there. I do so love being outside. It's more sleeting than snowing downtown (sealevel there, where at home we've got enough elevation to get proper snow cover) and when I got home my coat must've weighed an extra fifteen pounds. If CrazyChris hadn't taught me to layer way back when this would be miserable weather but as is I can dress for seven hours more-or-less straight out there and come home just starting to get chilly.
I find something very compelling about this snowfall. It's huge flakes poured down generously. The footing is awful because Vancouverites don't shovel and seldom plough. Snow confuses us. There are people out in it going from place to place and the snow, like the first few sunny days in spring, is an acceptable excuse to grin at people randomly. I love the feeling of isolation walking down a street with few footprints and the sound of heavy snow falling, and I love how it's broken by those moments of smiling contact. Even if people don't *like* the snow, a grin is understood in this context. It's not unusual or creepy, it's just something shared with a stranger and then gone.
Sundown is creeping in and the sky is a startling lavender colour right now. My house is my house. I do not envy anyone out there driving, particularly Angus who's on his way back from Seattle now and I really do hope gets home safe. Bob did the smart thing and cancelled his trip to Chilliwack with all this weather.
The snow brings out my big shovelling-walks pet peeve though. People need to shovel their sidewalks. Sure, you can't do it every second of every day, but just because you're reasonably able-bodied doesn't mean that everyone is, and some of those people need to leave their houses to get food, etc. If I'm slipping out there and falling (and I *am*), it's gotta be terrifying for people with mobility issues, and when the slush freezes up tonight it'll be 84578946892394567846 times harder to shovel tomorrow and just as dangerous. This is Sunday, it's a weekend, you have time to shovel, so be a civilised human being and do it.
This goes through my head with nearly every unshovelled walk, alas. I used to have some clients who had trouble going outside in this, and it's just not cool.
I need to get on that work hunt tomorrow, but I also need to go out for more walking as long as this lasts. A walk every day is making me a very happy person.
Enough with this. Time to reward myself for shovelling the walk with some tea and miso soup and rat snuggling. I wish I weren't out of books to read. Maybe I'll raid Ryan's Terry Pratchett novels -- any particular recommendations?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 01:56 am (UTC)Alternately, Strata.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 04:35 am (UTC)I agree on the shovelling issue. My building is one of the only ones that has the sidewalk out front shoveled on this stretch of road, and it's HARD to walk on the parts that aren't.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 05:39 am (UTC)