Making the Most of the Snow

What better way to celebrate a productive early morning session of writing than to go out and shovel snow?

Okay, there has to be lots of more exciting ways, but after sitting for several hours I’m always ready for some exercise, and this morning offered the perfect opportunity in the form of the approximately twelve inches of snow which had settled over and around my car. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere this weekend, so I could have left it and hoped nature would take care of the problem before I did need to use the car again, but the snow had stopped, the sun was shining and the outdoors beckoned.

I can’t remember when we last had so much snow all at once. I know… I know… we were lucky, the poor folks in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine have had it a lot worse and I can only imagine how long it would take to dig a car out if you had three feet of snow to contend with. Or, given we live in an apartment and park our car on the street along with many others, how you actually figure out which is your car among all the mounds. Imagine starting to dig only to find you are digging someone else’s car out!  

Fortunately, you could just about see the license plates on the cars here so that wasn’t a problem, but with a parking system of head-to-head parking spots down the middle of the street, there is the question of where to put the snow that you are shoveling without making the situation worse for your neighbors. You can’t just fling it to the side like we used to when we had a yard. Or at least, not if you want to stay on friendly terms. And of course, you’re not supposed to dump it back onto the snow-plowed roads – which would be a waste of time anyhow given that the next time the snow-plow comes round, chances are they’ll just push it back up against your car.  

    

To my surprise, what I imagined would be a short shoveling session – after all, I was only digging a car out, not a whole drive - turned out to take over an hour and a half. Fortunately, the time just flew by, as I had the company of some of my more persistent characters to keep me mentally occupied – which made me wonder. What do non-writers think about at times like this? 

By the time I did return indoors I had a couple of potential new plot points, a hearty appetite and the knowledge that after that kind of work-out I certainly didn’t need to go to the gym today. I wonder what’s on Movies-on-demand?