The Sound Of Silence

We got a spring snow storm this afternoon and evening.  Yes, getting moisture is wonderful, but the very best thing about a snow storm (or a heavy rain) is the quiet.
People close their windows and doors.  Children play inside.  People put their ever-barking dogs in.  More people stay home when the roads are wet, so there's less traffic.  With the colder air, the numerous and noisy air conditioners shut down.
It's so peaceful.
Bliss.
:)

Writing Prompt Photo: The Shoe Tree

(Yes, Max already posted about this.  I know.)

West of the Salt Lake Valley, out past Tooele (if you're not from Utah, you probably can't pronounce that correctly), we have the West Desert.  On the highway to the abandoned town of Iosepa (colonized by Hawaiians in the 1800s -- because somehow that made sense to someone at the time, putting folks used to tropical weather in a desert and asking them to farm productively), there is a shoe tree.  And this, folks, is a picture of the shoe tree is a snow storm.
Yup, a tree hung with shoes in the middle of the desert in the snow.  Looks like a good writing prompt to me. :)

(Don't forget to click on the photo if you want to enlarge it.)

Happy Holidays

May this season find you with your chin up, your back to the weather, and your nose aglow for new horizons.

The Utah Sport Of Tree-Beating

Yesterday we had snow.
It never stopped.
I shoveled Friday night when I arrived home from school.  I shoveled twice Saturday and  shook down the trees as much as possible.  Today I've shoveled twice already and shaken down the trees again.
Judging from the height of the snow in my backyard where I waded out to my trees, I have just about 21 inches in my backyard.  (I measured against my leg and then measured that space with a yardstick once I came indoors.)  That's 21 inches since Friday night, which is sizable, even in Utah.
For those of you who've never lived in a snowy place before, let me explain the joys of shaking down trees.  The problem is that some trees don't lose their leaves until December.  Basically, there are only a few trees in the neighborhood that DO lose their leaves early -- and, blessedly, they are the trees that are nearest the roof of our house.
However, our street is lined with horrid things that don't lose their leaves until about January and then smell absolutely awful in the spring when they burst into leaf.  These are some nasty trees.  And trees still full of dead leaves + heavy snow = BIG problems.
I watched a branch come down onto a neighbors' yard Friday night.  And, on the second round of shoveling today, I spoke to the teenage daughter who was out shoveling that driveway.  She stopped to text someone, and just as she did, a 10-foot long branch came crashing down, landing inches away from her.
Yesterday, there were crews removing large tree limbs -- like 10 to 15 feet long -- using a digger and a dump truck, for nearly two hours.  Today, there are tree limbs lining the street again, and one completely blocking a section of the sidewalk.  (So far, however, only one car has been damaged and no homes have been.)
Thus, beating tree branches is a regular activity in our neighborhood, engaged in by most of the families (except that one guy who never does any work.  But doesn't every neighborhood have that one guy?).  There are various forms: the guy directly across prefers throwing a broom like a javelin, the guy next door prefers pounding a shovel at the overly-laden branches, and I prefer hooking a rake into smaller branches, then heaving away like a monk ringing a prayer call -- only with snow plummeting down onto me.  (I wear a hoodie; this helps.)  Today, however, I also tried a gutter cleaner with a long neck and a hooked end.  This allowed me to get hold of larger branches and pull.  It worked pretty well.
Really, I am now to a point where I'm seriously considering investing in new boots, as pulling the old ones on and off hurts my back more than shoveling does, and sturdy shoes don't help all that much in 21 inches of snow.  (But the boots I like are priced at an absurd $99, so I'll be dealing with snowy shoes until the after-Christmas sales, thank you very much.)

Got Snow?

We do.  Nearly a foot at my house -- all in 24 hours.  Bet the ski resorts are filled with happy people.
I dislike shoveling snow, and I loathe driving in it (because of the other drivers, all of whom seem to forget from year to year how to drive in the stuff), but it is beautiful.  And, of course, enough of this stuff in the mountains will prevent us from a drought year.  That would be good.
Due to the school play this week, I hadn't been home in daylight since last weekend (when it was all nice and dry and warm).  Thus, this morning, after hooking a rake to large tree branches in my backyard and shaking off frozen snow that was forcing large limbs to the ground, and after shoveling my driveway, my sidewalks, and helping two neighbors with their own trees, I got to turn off my sprinkling system.
Let me just say that 10 inches of snow (we've had more since) makes for less than ideal conditions in which to perform a job that requires lying on one's belly with a long sprinkler key in one hand and a flashlight in the other.
Oh well.  It's done now.
After that, it was housework!  Such excitement.
And now it's time to grade papers.  More excitement.
I know you're all jealous of the thrilling life I lead.

Between The Elections And The School Play,

I haven't had more than 5 hours of sleep any night this week.  Last night, I got right around 4 hours.
Today I worked a 13-hour day (yesterday it was 15 hours), then had to come home and shovel six inches of heavy, wet snow off the driveway.
I'm so exhausted.