Oh, my aching back!

Wow...normally it takes me 30 minutes to shovel the walks here. About 50' down the middle of our buildings, than about another 40-50' down the front. Another 30' or so down the back to the parking areas. Today, with 3' drifts, and about 8" of snow piled up everywhere else, it took me two and a half hours!!!! I am freaking beat!!
Here's some before and after.

Drifts were about 3' high here...not sure how or where I was going to move the snow!

Once people walk on the snow, it melds with the cement. It took going at it the a scraper first, then going over it again with the shovel. Exhausting. And I almost took out an old lady who asked "why haven't you finished yet??"...OMG - it's a good thing I had just put the shovel down, because one blow...that's all it would have taken! And no one would have found the body till the snow melts...I could have denied all involvement. It's a good thing my mother raised me better then that...

The professionals showed up next door at the same time that I was out there. Yes, the building right beside (and attached to mine, which is the one on the left) uses a snow team (which charges more than I make as resident manager, so now I'm really interested in what the babe next door makes!) and they are very good about knowing where the two properties end.

This is as far as they shovel out front, and down the middle, they do their side. Three guys with shovels had their job done in no time. Sigh...wishing I could afford it, I tell you!

This is my gauge...right now it's piled up to my chest (about 4'), but I use this to tell how bad of a winter it was. Last spring, I think it hit the 10' mark, as it snowed practically every day! I think we've seen the last of the snow, but it's going to get COLD next week. The highs are only -20C or so for the next week - funny...temperature I speak metric (except for cooking) and distance I speak standard (except for speed). I am a conversion child, as Canada converted to metric when I was in grade 3 (1971/72 - yes, I am THAT old) as I remember being taught how to measure things and make the conversions.
Anyway, I'm back inside now, thoroughly enjoying some Baileys in my vanilla coffee right now. It is tasting like more! Didn't go to weight watchers this morning (figured I'm up about a half a pound anyway), as the roads are just nasty out there, and the 11km drive would probably have seemed like a 100 by the time we got there. I hope today everything gets cleaned up, as I have an Epicure party to host tomorrow. Should be fine by then, although I should go plug in the car.

For those of you confused by that statement, no I do not have an electric car. In western Canada, where it gets bitterly cold, we have block heaters in our vehicles that need to be plugged in. This keeps the block warm enough to start, and hopefully prevents it from cracking and therefore needing a new engine after a cold spell! I remember a coworker from the Toronto area very confused when the rental company told her the extension cord was in the trunk of the car - she had no idea why they would tell her that, and then was even more confused when the car wouldn't start the next day!

Trying to decide what to have for dinner, although after "playing" in the snow all afternoon, I'm thinking warm and creamy...I bought some gnocchi, so I'm going to research some recipes and see what I can come up with.

Hoping the Halibloggers had an awesome run down east for the Santa Shuffle today. I'll be thinking of you all when I do the Resolution Run on New Year's Eve, my first real run since Melissa's at the end of September.

Later,