News Flash! Prairie Sherry Rocks the Snow-Blower!

Sacked out in Grandma's big bed.

It is time for me to be heading to dreamland, but we celebrated Maia's 17th birthday today, and this is the first extended time I have had at the keyboard.  The actual birthday is on Tuesday, but this is the day we could get everyone together.  I just got the grand-kidlettes to bed. They are staying the night, and I will take them to school tomorrow morning.  

I am always one for a little visual hyperbole.

For many years, I was a single mom.  From 1991 until 2006, I lived in northern Wisconsin with the three girls.  Somehow, I always managed to get mountains of snow moved off sidewalks and driveways without mechanical means. And folks, I do mean MOUNTAINS! At times that meant that I would get little ones tucked into bed and sound asleep before I would venture out with shovel in hand.  There were many 3 AM mornings when I had to clear snow before I got the family ready for school.  My girls were shoveling by the time they could get their boots on the right feet without help.  Even when I married and moved "south," I was often the one who made sure the snow was cleared.  I just was never good about waiting until cars and feet had packed fluffy flakes into cement.  

Last spring, dear friends gave me their deluxe snow-blower as they prepared to move to much sunnier and less snowy climes in South Carolina.  I brought it home in the back of a rented pick-up in late February.  I had no idea how to get it from truck to garage, so I just backed into a sizable snowbank and dumped the blower off the back end.  Somehow, I got the machine into the garage, and just left it there for the duration of the winter--too scared to try to figure out how it worked.

A ridiculous hat is always a great fashion accessory
when there is the chance you may end up in the hospital  
after the machine turns on you.

Today we had our first significant snowfall.  As the flakes accumulated, I kept thinking about that machine sitting in my garage.  I had had one short lesson in its operation months ago, but now was the time to prove myself.  Better to show yourself as a fool in two inches of snow rather than a foot.  

Victory!  Two of inches of snow removed!!

Yes, I realize that I could have probably swept this snow away with a small broom, but there was a great sense of accomplishment as I fired up the big engine and blasted those bitty snowflakes to the moon. 

I am woman.  Hear my snow-blower roar!

Prairie Sherry