The Ice Dam

Today was a very productive day! Hubby was off looking at motorcycles, and Boyfriend and I cleaned. Quite satisfactorily, if I do say so myself! Apparently we missed vacuuming last week...and thereby hangs a tale...

I often gag at cleaning product commercials on television. "Who would ever let their house get so dirty!" I snort in derision.

Well, with four cats and a dog, it takes a week.

One week for the hair to become so pervasive, that a single pass with the vacuum leaves a definite trail. The "black" carpet is grey, except for that one pass.

Sigh.

Just prior to beginning the vacuum process, I emptied the dishwasher and began a recipe of oatmeal bread. I haven't made bread in ages, and I get so tired of commercial breads...

The vacuum did its thing while the bread rose in the dishwasher - a great place to proof bread! Except for the fact that your dirty dishes have to stay somewhere else for at least three hours!

The the bread went in, and I went outside to hack at the four-inch thick glacier that is our front walk, surrounded by eight-foot high snowbanks on either side.

I'm sure my poor Daughter can hear me talking to myself..."In my day, my Grandpa would NEVER have let this ice build up! He'd go out while it was snowing, he'd go out while the freezing rain was falling, and keep sweeping and shovelling everything off in order to keep that path cleared down to the cement! We never had slippery steps! Grandpa would turn over in his grave to see this mess! Those men in there oughta be ashamed of themselves..."

Etc etc etc.

I used an iron rod with a chisel tip on one end, the rod weighs about thirty pounds. I used a tool on a very short handle that looked like it would help break up ice, and it did so nicely. And I found Grandpa's very own aluminum shovel, no longer straight across the bottom from all the times he and I have used it to break up ice...

And I DID it!

The walkway is clear all the way to the street, with four-inch sides. I'm not sure how much damage I did to my crumbling neck or my aching wrists, but I don't have to fear for my life any more while walking to the car!

Then I came in, died a bit on the couch, a got up for a lovely slice of still-warm oatmeal bread.

*sigh of contentment