Posts Tagged ‘icy driveway’
Glazed Asphalt
The smooth black surface of our driveway is great for melting snow that remains after plowing. It’s not so great when moisture condenses overnight and freezes. We need to get a sign that warns, “Slippery When Glazed!”
Luckily, the warmth visiting our region as the day progressed made that glaze disappear entirely. We lost more snow on Sunday than yesterday but the trend is obvious and feeds itself. Each day we get above freezing will advance the evaporation to greater degrees (pun intended).
On a day over the previous weekend when the clouds weren’t as opaque, I captured this view directly overhead:
A cloud gazers delight. Do you see the dolphin? I’m intrigued by the contrast of shadowed clouds compared to the ones glowing bright white. I wonder what it looked like from the window of an airplane flying close to the same elevation.
Not much sky watching happening when walking on our driveway in the morning hours. Waddling along like penguins are we.
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Mystery Solved
There are times when the answers to life’s mysteries make total sense. In this case, it was hardly a surprise. Late yesterday afternoon, Cyndie received a message from our weekend horse sitter apologizing for accidentally pushing a button on the remote controller of the AppleTV and seeing a message she had subscribed to some channel.
That explained the “Subscription Confirmation” email I received Friday. We had invited the sitter to stay at the house if she wanted and then quickly forgot it meant she would be using our media setup.
My new mystery is how I should deal with the skating rink that has evolved on top of the gravel drive in front of the barn. As soon as we got home from the lake yesterday, I headed out to plow and quickly got stuck trying to push large amounts of snow over the icy surface.
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I resorted to making multiple passes around the hay shed with the blade lifted, just to disturb the deep snow. Next, I tried barely lowering the blade and pushing small amounts to the side, Sometimes, when the wheels just spun on ice, I would get off and shove the ATV sideways and then try again. Slow rocking got me going eventually.
In the end, I used a wide hand shovel to distribute a layer of snow evenly over the slipperiest parts, hoping it might refreeze and offer better traction than just the ice.
The thing is, now we are expecting freezing rain, so it is hard to guess what that surface will change to by the end of the day. Whatever it becomes, I didn’t want the new precipitation to be on top of the deep snow that I had yet to clear after last Thursday’s storm.
It felt good to get that addressed last night after having left it to go up to the lake for the weekend. Now I’ll just sit back and watch what today brings. Happy Monday!
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Loft Makeover
Yesterday was a day of furniture upheaval in our house, demonstrated first thing in the morning by the sight of the overstuffed chair that used to be in the loft suddenly occupying the floor of our kitchen.
Cyndie and I made the drive to Edina and met two of her brothers, Steve and Ben, who made this one-day project possible for us. The primary goal was to move the big sectional corner sofa from their mom’s basement back to our house. As long as we were there and Steve had made a truck and trailer available, other large items were included. We also moved a recliner, twin beds, a beautiful old glass-doored bookshelf cabinet, lamps, and several bags of linens.
In order to accommodate the furniture that is coming our way, we are passing some of our old things on to others who have expressed interest and/or are donating pieces to local organizations in need.
The challenge that loomed largest appeared to be how we would get the bigger items moved up our spiral staircase to the loft. It actually turned out to be rather straightforward and involved taking advantage of the railing to support and slide the couch sections on the way up.
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Honestly, the biggest complication of the day was caused by the icy driveway hindering Steve’s ability to move the truck and trailer as easily as we would have liked.
Once we had everything in place and the guys had headed back to the cities, I tested the new seating by checking out Iowa vs. Purdue in the men’s Big Ten Championship basketball game and promptly fell into a wonderful slumbering nap.
The new setup passed with my full and highest approval, although laced with an underlying feeling of disorientation over sitting in Marie’s basement furniture while now in my loft at home.
I blame the hour clock change yesterday of Daylight Saving Time. Makes everything seem out of whack for a few days until I get used to it.
A couple more naps on the couch while pretending to watch television will go a long way toward mentally adjusting to the changes accomplished yesterday.
Many thanks to Ben and Steve for coming all the way to our place and helping with the heavy lifting to make it all possible!
I’m now very ready for NCAA March Madness…
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Relative Something 