Why Isn't Eleven Pronounced Onety-One???

And why is being outside in the evening dark, in a blizzard, shovelling snow and freezing my fingers off so darned fulfilling??

My husband drove back from our other church town tonight in a raging blizzard.  The east wind was blowing the snow right down the middle of the highway, piling it up in tall mounds on every straight stretch of road.  (He arrived home safely, thank goodness after a very slow drive!)

While he was on the way here I was out behind the garage shovelling out huge drifts that would have made his entry onto the property and into the garage nearly impossible.  The east wind blows over the top of our garage and then drops all the snowfall straight down, splat, onto the nice flat space there behind the house.  Then the wind whips past the side of the garage and spirals into the corner formed where the house and garage meet.  The snow begins to pile up in there and eventually works its way right across the entry doors to both house and garage and then funnels on westward across the driving space.  As it deepens it manages to sift under the garage door in a couple of places where the seal isn't tight, dotting the inside floor with tiny mounds of snow. Opening the garage door to sweep those little mounds out resulted tonight in fierce gales tossing the snow right back inside and plastering my face with icy flakes.

If I hadn't shovelled out the entire back driving space my husband would have high centered the car attempting to get it into the garage.  What fun I had out there: pushing snow, carrying snow, falling in the snow, (and okay, yes, I gave in to the impulse to create a snow angel while I was down there, even though the indentations were filled up again with fresh snowfall in less than a minute), grunting with the effort of lifting the shovel over and over again to heap the snow up where it would be out of the way of the car, the wind turning my hair into octopus tentacles waving madly about, snow flakes rushing up my nose and clinging to the faux fur on my coat collar.  I had so much fun out there that if my fingers hadn't been nearly frozen after the first forty minutes I would probably still be out there trying to clear the huge mountain of snow that has continued to form.  Another giant mountain of snow has formed outside our front door!  Guess I will have the pleasure of shovelling through that first thing in the morning.

Rain and snow storms energize me, particularly when I can be outside enjoying them.  Shovelling out behind the house and garage tonight, in the darkness lit only by what light from the front street filters back there through the tree branches in the side yard, I felt empowered and energetic and as happy as if I was in my right mind.  It won't be quite as much fun shovelling in the daylight in the morning but it will be a good project anyway.....right now there is a 3 foot drift spanning most of the front walk, the snow is still falling and the wind is still howling. 

Good to know how I will be spending my morning.