A Conscientous Grammie

There is no pass when it comes to Mother Nature and what she chooses to dish out.  My bladder got me up at 5;30 a.m.  That is not unusual for me to toddle to the bathroom and right back to bed for another three hours.  This morning, all the noise up and down the street made me rethink things.  A-ha! Snow!  I was up and dressed within 30 minutes.  It is a Godsend that Randy blows out our driveway, without fail.  With the now fifteen inches of snow within a week, that has followed the eight inches at the last weekend of January, the clearing off that needs to be done is no longer just a push.  It has to be lifted and hefted as the banks of snow are getting quite tall.  I knew if I pushed everything that was needed to clear the front of the garage and the backdoor into the middle of the driveway a bit west of the back door, Randy would take care of it when he came.  It worked out great.  When Randy would leave, there would be no additional snow for me to move in case I needed to get the car out.  In my heart I knew I had to be conscientious to get through this week of off again and on again snowfalls.  No way do I want to be stranded in my own home when it just takes a bit of careful, painstaking planning. 

Coming in at seven, I knew oatmeal was going to be the breakfast of choice.  Two minutes in the microwave and I was sitting down to a well deserved breakfast just as Randy was at the end of the driveway.  Whew, the plan came together.  The tea kettle didn’t take long and it was whistling as I looked forward to having a cup of hot tea.  It has now been eight days since I have had coffee.  Did ya feel the earth shake and quake?  There has not been a day in fifty five years that multiple cups of coffee have not been consumed by me. I read up on the benefits of tea, plus having my doctor encouraging it in regard to arthritis, especially the tea that is infused with Turmeric.  With the time frame that Dennis’ trip was planned for, it gave me the perfect chance to try it.  Planning for this, there were multiple flavors of tea on hand.  Going forward, this will have to be worked out once Dennis is home.  Dennis drinks coffee.  Dennis takes it upon himself to get the programmed coffee pot to be ready with hot coffee at seven each morning.  He sets it up for the glass coffee pot to register 10 cups of brewed coffee.  I have noticed that the thermos cup that he takes in the morning still has a three-fourths cup left in it when he calls it quits.  Guess who hates to see the coffee go to waste? Time will tell.

With a belly full of oatmeal and several cups of tea, I suited up and cleared off the front stoop of snow and made a path from our driveway to Stauffer Avenue for the mail man.  No way do I want his mailbag to go flying as he is trying to get over a three foot pile of packed snow, even if most of what he delivers to us goes right into the recycling bin.  Oh yes, the city crew does a great job.  With my pusher in hand, I did go through the patio porch to clear off the east patio.  It is the only outside door area that I am keeping open to let the cats out for a jaunt once in a while.  Honey Bunny was brave.  If I pushed a path from west to east, she was right behind me.  I would go back for another swat and she sat at the end and looked at me as if wondering why I wasn’t going to make a longer path so she could get to her haunt, which is the vacant house to the far east of us.  Silly kitty.  She stayed outside with me the entire time it took.  Getting the snow out of the bird bath container that we have been using to put shell corn in for the deer, brought her little nose right there to sniff.  I know the cats sit on the table in the patio porch and watch as the deer eat.  From our bathroom window,  I can see the bird bath container through the slider doors, as well as the table in the patio porch.  The three cats sit and take it all in.

No lights have been put on in the sewing studio today.  It was important for me to be conscientious in keeping home and hearth up to speed while Dennis is gone.  It also had a bit to do that my butt was dragging by the time the path was shoveled to get at the house furnace vent.  Tomorrow is another day.