A walk in the snow

This morning Miss B drove "my" car to school for the day, and I had to pick up our weekly egg order at the elementary school, so Lil Miss A walked together to school. It's about 7 blocks away. We have about 3 inches of fresh stuff on top of the un-fresh stuff, and it's still snowing. We walked together through town, kicking through the snow, making tracks together and talking. It was lovely. She is perfectly fine walking to school alone, and I usually have her walk (or ride her bike) if it's over about 15 degrees, but even though it was a little cooler than that this morning, we were bundled enough that we could just enjoy it. There's something about walking hand in hand in the fresh snow with your child that makes memories.

I stopped at the bank and the post office on my way back, so all told it was probably about a half-mile walk. My thigh and butt muscles were saying, "What are you doing up there, anyway?" They have had it pretty easy for the past couple of weeks. After they realized what we were doing was walking, something they dimly remembered, they quit complaining and just got to work. The plows are out. Plows are big, scary, rather dangerous vehicles; you have to watch out for them, since the drivers are high up in their cabs and usually concentrating on what they are doing and not watching for pedestrians. Still, there's something reassuring in the sight of a big yellow snowplow with flashing lights rumbling down the street. It means someone else is out there, civilization has not broken down completely, and we are not cut off from our loved ones. (Besides, Lenny has taken to plowing out our parking space in front of the house for us. He sure doesn't have to. He's just nice.)

Once home, I let Bo loose in the yard while I did the most minimal job of shoveling a path from the back door to the street (that's the door everybody but traveling salesmen and the county assessor uses anyway) while he bounced around in the drifts. Then we fed the chickens and refilled the bird feeders. I couldn't find the bird seed. Maybe we have run out. Anyway I filled the feeders with cracked corn, which, if they will eat it, will be good high-energy keep-warm food.

Now we are inside in a warm, cozy house and I need to get to work. Coffee is on, cats are sleepy, candles are lit, snow is falling outside. I do love my life!