Old Man Winter

     Looking out at the first measurable amount of snow fall for the season, a whopping four inches, I was transported back to a time long ago.

     It was a time when I was much younger.  A time I was on my own, living alone. Brave. Crazy. Daring.  A time when I donned a pair of coveralls and shoveled snow out of a driveway that was about 40 feet long.....with a corn scoop.  The good old days.

     Fast forwarding back to the present, I took stock of the situation, from the warmth of the kitchen window.  Living alone now, even though it is temporary, is not near the fun it was many moons ago. But, I knew if the deck and sidewalks were going to be cleaned off, it was up to me to do it.

     I gathered all the warm apparel I could find.  Coat, gloves, scarf, boots and earmuffs.  I never wear a hat, it musses up my hair, but I always am equipped with my signature earmuffs.  They are the kind that wrap around the back of the neck so as not to do above mentioned mussiness.  I put on all the winter garb and pulled the hood of my hooded sweatshirt out of the backside of my coat. Another signature piece of clothing, if the temperature is under 70 degrees, I have on a hooded sweatshirt.

     Since this snowfall was expected, I had brought the snow scoop in the house and placed it by the back door.  I stood at the door, scoop in hand, I could do this.  I opened the door and stepped out.

     Have I ever mentioned the awning that is over the back door?  It is a lovely half circle, metal contraption, that is covered in weatherproof material.  When we first put it up, our daughters decided it looked like the neighborhood bar and grill.  I always preferred to call it the bistro, but they would roll their eyes and go about their merry way.  The awning serves a useful purpose of providing shelter when standing with arms full of grocery sacks, in the rain, while trying to find the key to the door.  It also catches snow......lots of snow.  So, the trick is to open the door, step out, shut the door and wait for the snow to fall off the awning.

     I failed to remember this most important fact.  Within seconds of closing the door and taking that first step, I was engulfed in four cubic feet of snow.  Not wanting to go back into the house and fling snow all over the kitchen, I feverishly scooped my way to the garage.  Once inside, I removed most of the above mentioned winter apparel.  The hood on my hooded sweatshirt might as well had been a bucket strapped to my back with the amount of snow that was in it.  I started to do what surely looked like a rain dance, to get the snow out of my hood since most of it was wanting to go down my back.  Dang, that stuff was cold!

     After I was confident that the majority of the snow was off, I quickly redressed.  Since I was already in the garage, I figured I might as well get in the car and go get the mail.  As I reached for the door handle, I caught a glimpse of my reflection on the glass. There, on the top of my head, on my freshly fixed hair, was a mound of snow that looked like a dunce cap.

     Old Man Winter can take a hike.