Snowmageddon!!

WOW -- that's all I can say about the snow! Where the heck did it all come from? I don't even know when it started, but it was early in the morning, and the girls and I had a lovely walk in the snow. And then it kept snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing. 

The wild and long snowstorm

I went out to shovel at 2 PM and shoveled for about 40 minutes. I cleared half the driveway. I had put the car in the garage in the morning because it would make it easier to clear the driveway. This was the end of the driveway -- that's how much snow was in the street! Only once before did we have that much snow in the street. Our street didn't get plowed within 24 hours, and we were supposed to go to a quilt retreat on Monday morning. We had to postpone the retreat by a day because my car had very low clearance and I couldn't get out of the driveway!

The amount of snow in the street at 2 PM

It almost seemed that as fast as I was shoveling, it was being filled in again! Last night, when I shoveled, I did one swipe with the shovel where I had started! Look how much had reaccumulated! 

I could barely keep up with the falling snow

KU went out and did some shoveling in the afternoon. I went out again at 7 PM and shoveled for another half hour or so, and there was as much snow in the driveway as there had been at 2 PM. How is that possible? What does one do with the snow? Get a shovel, bend, and lift! Those snowbanks along the side of the driveway are a tad tall now. 

Oh my gosh -- look at the depth of snow on the house! When this stuff finally starts to melt, we're going to have icicles on the front of our home. GRRRRR! We do need to resolve that insulation issue. 

The snow on the roof

So at 3 AM or thereabouts, the plow came by. Actually, it's a massive backhoe loader. The sidewalk plow had already been by, so that is a huge bonus! My tax dollars are going to an excellent cause! But there was a massive windrow at the bottom of the drive. I know it doesn't look too big in that photo, but it was substantial. 

After the plow passed

Shortly after, the backhoe loader came back to take care of the windrow. And it's not always the windrow's height, but its width! Because we're on a curve, it can be a crazy situation. I happened to catch him cleaning the windrow, which is another new thing for this year and well worth every penny of tax dollars I paid for that service. 

Clearing the windrow

And this is what we are left with. The guarantee was to have a 10-foot opening at the end of the driveway. I assume that is the width of the blade. I know I can't live with that bit on the right-hand side, so I'll be out later to get rid of it. That'll be easy - just push it out in the pile at the side of the curb. No lifting required - or not much. 

The end of our driveway is clear (ish!)

I've already been out shoveling again for 40 minutes and cleared almost all of the top part of the driveway above the sidewalk. And the front step. At least when I was done, NO MORE snow had fallen, so it was much more satisfying. I figure it'll take me another 40 minutes to clear the bottom part of the driveway, and that's OK. I rather enjoy being outdoors, and again, if you dress appropriately, you are warm. No need to overdress with all the exertion, but my hands were cold at one point, and I had to get a warmer pair of gloves. 

I will say that they were super fast with the plowing. We are one of the last streets to be plowed because we are a cul-de-sac. They showed up at 3 AM, but the sidewalk plow had already passed, and then they came back to clear the windrows. It was very efficient! 

I know there's going to be a ton of people complaining to the city about the amount of snow. The last time I checked, the city isn't responsible for the amount of snow, and there are only so many places to put it. Get over it -- this is CANADA! 

It makes me think of one winter in Montreal. There was a brutal snowstorm, and the city couldn't keep up. I was on my way home, almost at the condo, when I got stuck. People were just abandoning their cars in the middle of the street, as did I. It was a residential street, and with the help of others, I got it out the next day. 

Speaking of snow - look at this girl! She is super happy to be outside, and I don't know how many times she has gone out and plunked herself in the snow. The Husky? Oh - she was asleep in her warm bed in the house!

MOM - I love the snow

The next quilt waiting to be quilted on the long arm was a big one with a Minky backing, which I wasn't too keen on loading, so I loaded a small wallhanging of mine instead. And got it quilted before we started the Virtual Retreat. 

One of my quilts - DONE

That quilt got trimmed, and now I have a stack of FOUR small projects that are trimmed and waiting for the binding to be stitched on. I ran out of the small tags I use for my projects, so these are on hold. The tags are in the mail, but where? They gave me a tracking number, but I don't know how they were sent. I'll see if I can figure it out today. Of the four projects, three have been hanging around for a very long time. It's good that they are now quilted. Think PROGRESS!!

Projects waiting to be bound

As someone mentioned in the comments, small successes are actually ENORMOUS successes because you get into the habit of finishing. You can see progress, and it all counts!!!

I was getting tired towards the end of the Virtual Retreat, so I tidied up all the threads, fabric, and other bits and pieces from the recently finished projects. That included rolling up this partial ball of yarn that I had been using. 

Rolling up leftover yarn

I had a great discussion with someone about to-do lists, and I'm going to try using an app. It's going to take me time to ease myself into it, but I do like the fact that the list will be with me always. But that didn't stop me from creating a written list on a small clipboard I found while decuttering the office. 

My week's goals in Studio B

I am a very visual person, and the fact of handwriting those items on the list is almost enough for me to mentally commit to them. It's like if I write it down, I'll remember it. If I don't write it down, I'm not committed. I also love my bigger visual to-do list with the main projects I want to complete this year. 

Of the 21 items on the list last week, I think 6 were not completed. But that's OK. I rolled them over to this week, and there are only 12 items on the list. 

By the way, that big quilt with the double-wide Minky backing? It's now loaded on the long arm, and I'll get to it today or tomorrow. 

I have to laugh because I started to burn my Christmas pie candle, and I can definitely say that yesterday I was burning the candle at three ends as I attempted to use the long arm, the embroidery machine, and the sewing machine at the same time! 

My Christmas Pie candle

That is always a challenge because one or the other needs attention, like a new bobbin, trim fabric, or whatever. 

Once I had finished tidying up, I put some items on the cutting table to work on today. My Scan n Cut fabric cutting mat needed to be cleaned. After cutting all that foam, it wasn't very sticky. I had attempted to clean it with non-alcoholic baby wipes, but it was still unusable. I was going to use a glue stick to restick it, but the girls suggested I get the LA Totally Awesome out and use that instead. OH MY GOSH -- with mere minutes that mat was super sticky again! There was so much lint and fuzz from the foam! What a TOTALY AWESOME product. You can only buy it at Dollar Tree. And so that mat lives to see another cutting session!

Using LA Totally Awesome to clean my digital cutting mat

Spin class was canceled this morning because the gym didn't open until 6 AM. That would allow the equipment to clear the parking lot. And I don't mind, I got my exercise from shoveling. Now that all the sidewalks are also clear, it's going to be easy to walk the dogs. I think we might bypass the forest this morning - the snow is DEEP. We had record snowfall, with 40-50 cm. For those who understand inches better, like me, that is 15 to 20 inches! Yikes! At least it was light and fluffy, but it was a challenge to shovel because it was also very granular, so unless you threw it OVER the snow bank, it had a tendency to fall back down into the driveway. Not very productive shoveling at times!

I did a little bit of decluttering, but there were other things on my plate, so the decluttering will have to wait another day. No big deal! I got this! 

Today is Monday sewing, and I have a bunch of small projects I'd love to clear up, so that's on the agenda. 

On that note, I'm out of here! 

Have a super day and be safe!!!

Ciao!!!