Relative Something

I haven’t talked to our insurance agent yet, so I’ll make this a practice run for that call. With the spring sunshine bringing temps up to 60°F yesterday, I made a brief foray into the yard around the house. I figured I would pick up any obvious trash that had settled out of the season’s worth of snow, and at the same time, capture a few shots of the damage this winter inflicted upon our property. It was a spur of the moment decision to step out, and I did so just after I pulled into the driveway from work, so I was not dressed to get involved in any actual outdoor tasks.

First up is a view of the once-proud juniper evergreen shrub that has been in front of the porch railing for all the 20+ years we have lived in this house. The snow pack has flattened it like never before. It has always come back in the past, but this year I will be surprised if it can return to its former glory.

Still in the front of the house, the gutter has been knocked out of alignment and dented pretty drastically by one of the monster icicles that grew off the ice dam that dominated the edge of the upper eave. Instead of melting away slowly, it let loose all at once with a thundering bang! onto the lower eave and gutter, eventually toppling all the way down to add to the growing mass that was flattening the shrubs.

The same thing was happening on the back side of the house, except, instead of just shrubs and gutters being abused, there was also my brand new, never-been-used, air conditioner in the line of fire. The largest icicle fell from the second story and, without a lower eave to bounce off, directed all of its momentum directly onto the fan assembly, pushing it down inside where the delicate fins of the cooling array succumbed to the pressure and developed flat spots where the fins became compressed.

I finished taking pictures and put the camera in my pocket. Then I noticed the wheelbarrow that had been left from last fall when I was working on building up a new base for the air conditioner. Last time I was dealing with that, it was in attempt to pull the shovel out of it to return it to storage in the garage. I was too late. It had frozen solid into the sand and ice that had formed. I left it underneath the deck for the rest of the winter.

Now it was filled to the brim with water. I stepped up with the intent to just drain the water. Yeah.

Pretty soon, I was slipping and sliding on the edge of the berm I had created last fall to support the AC unit, and the water draining from the wheelbarrow, now faster than I intended, was running right at my feet. In one hand I held paper trash I had picked up and the end of a shovel, the other was wrestling with the tilting wheelbarrow. The shovel had rusted to the extreme and I was quickly collecting mud, rust, water, dirt, sweat, and trash all over my hands, shoes, and pants.

Goodbye winter, hello spring. I haven’t quite accomplished the mental transition of coping with the difference in environment yet. It involves a whole different set of challenges. It certainly deserves a change out of the day-job attire. Especially the shoes.