The snow has finally stopped with the final amount totaling close to 17 inches.  My back, legs, and arms were telling me it was more like 100 inches but what do they know.  I rolled out of bed early this morning and knew in my heart the driveway wasn’t finished with me yet.  I didn’t realize just how right I was.

As a last gift from our town’s snow plow I found the bottom of my driveway completely blocked from their last visit sometime during the night. This is an annual bitch of mine that I need to tell someone about but believe me, no ones listening.  I grabbed my shovel and out into the cold I went once again. 

Let me set the scene for you. I’m standing at the end of my driveway with wet feet and sore limbs after shoveling for at least a half hour to clear the mess.  I finally finished (or so I thought) and I looked up the road and what did I see but the towns frigging snow plow heading my way.  I swear that damn driver was grinning as he reloaded my driveway with a ton of now slushy and dirty snow.  He should thank whatever God he believes in that I wasn’t armed. I start shoveling again and still grumbling about it when ten minutes later I hear the plow making it’s return trip going in the other direction.  The snow had stopped, the road was empty of traffic, it was just me and the snowplow, and the towns incompetent driver. 

I was standing directly across the road from my (new this year) mailbox when the plow swooped through, hit my mailbox, spinning it completely around, and left the door hanging by a thread. This is the third effing mailbox in the last five years that I’ll be forced to replace. As I’m sure you know, I was no longer smiling. That was how my day started. 

I finished the shoveling and decided I needed to get the hell out of the house for a few hours. I was suffering from a mild case of cabin-fever.  I ran a few errands, bought a few books, and took a few photographs.  My blood pressure finally  returned to normal and the day once again became calmer and more enjoyable.

Upon the return of my better-half from work I was made aware that we would be meeting some friends a a local restaurant later in the day for a few drinks and appetizers.  I actually was looking forward to that so after a quick hour on the X-Box, I showered, shaved, dressed, and was ready to go.

We met up with our friends, had a few drinks, and got caught up the latest gossip and had a great time.  Being the law abiding citizen that I am I stopped after three glasses of wine and went to drinking coffee.  It turned out to be my best move of the night.

As we headed home the night was clear and cold and we were chatting a little. Just a few minutes from our house all of a sudden two white tailed deer jumped from an embankment on our right landing directly in front of us.  Lucky for us and them I was driving slowly enough to get stopped and to let them pass.  Even so that still got the old heart racing for a few minutes.

I pull into our driveway and I could  see that the town’s garbage men finally emptied our trash container.  As I walked down the driveway to retrieve it I noticed how icy it had become.  I yelled out to my better-half to be careful and as I did I slipped and fell on my ass and twisted my already damaged knee  It was a little stiff last night but right now as I’m lying in bed writing this, it hurts too much to get up.  Looks like a few more weeks of hobbling around until it heals again.  I’m never all that surprised by my clumsiness but it’s getting really tiresome.  I guess I can celebrate my first fall for 2012 and look forward to the first one that’s sure to come in 2013.