Never Ending White

This had to be the coldest and snowiest winter in history. The white flakes just kept on coming like the radio personality would say about hit songs. 

Where I lived in Pennsylvania the plowing didn't commence until the feverish onslaught of flakes stopped. My family and I were trapped in the house. I felt like Robinson Cureso stranded on an island. We had two children, Rainy age ten and Gus age six. Being that young an cooped up in the house was beginning to drive them crazy. My wife Amy baked cakes and cookies the passed two days. Every counter was full of these delicious treats. Good thing I worked in a supermarket so we had plenty of milk and food in the freezer.  

Keeping the kids occupied was my job and it was no easy task. You can only watch so much television. I started reading them books and do all different voices. The kids loved it and we were off and running with this hit. They would each get to pick a book. I would read one in the afternoon after lunch and the other in the evening. We also made sure they kept up with their school work. This didn't go over with the rascals.  

The second day of snow I a temped to shovel the white demon. Dressed like the kid from A Christmas Story I opened the door. The snow was up to the door and covered the step. Mind you the house had a car port not on the side but right in front of the house. 

I grabbed the shovel an started. It was windy and the temperature was in the twenties. I cleared the car port in what seemed a dog's age and gazed out at the winter wonderland. It looked beautiful and pure, being no one had set foot on the white landscape.  

There was so much snow I couldn't do the shoveling all at once. I removed the mounds for a half hour at a time. Remember there was still a white blanket coming down. The street was empty I was the only nut out in this. I knew if I didn't do it like this when it did stop it was going to be a bigger pain. The day was done before the white powder was dug out and my body was ready to collapse. 

The next day I put the kettle on for tea and walked to the front door and opened. Eyes wide I shook my head. It was as if I removed nothing. It was still cascading the onslaught of crystals. The mound looked like mountain tops that would be impossible to climb.  

I was running out of room to clear a path. Thank God it was stopping today. The next problem was it was going to rain heavily tomorrow. Which meant I had to dig trenches so the water would have someplace to run and not into my crawl space. The driveway is pitched so the rain would run right down and straight into the crawl space. The temperature was still freezing. Bundled up I ventured out into the frozen waist land. 

Looking for a good place to start I shoveled my way to the street. Knowing I had to avert the water away from the house I begun digging on an angle. I felt like Moses parting the Red Sea. With walls of white on each side of me I kept moving forward. I finally finished at about six that night. We heard that roofs were collapsing from the weight of the snow. I looked up at mine and was a little worried. I went in an up to my bedroom with a yardstick to measure how much was on the roof. There was two feet and the top layer was frozen. 

That wasn't good but it would have to wait. The rain was the next big threat. If the trenches didn't work I was in serious trouble. My crawl space would flood because the street outside the house was two hills on each side and the driveway was slanted toward the house. 

The rains came in full force and I stood under the car port waiting and praying. The ice and snow covered street did nothing to hold back the river as it fell. The one good thing the trenches were working. Unfortunately for my two neighbors didn't dig any escape route for the water. I grabbed my shovel and headed to Tom's who was trying to stop the water from getting into his house.  

I started digging frantically on the side closest to the hill. I was soaked but kept moving. I told Tom to dig a few feet up from the steps on an angle. We finished before the river of water reached the front door. We ran to my neighbor across the street and did the same thing. He wasn't as fortunate. The white rapid of water was steaming into his house. Tom and I quickly dug one big trench which worked. Problem solved for now. 

Drenched I stripped my clothes off and took a hot shower. My body started to defrost. Once in my comfortable sweats I poured a glass of Hennessy and popped two cold pills. I made a fire in the fireplace pour another drink and then the next tragedy hit. The extreme cold and rain formed heavy ice on the power lines and caused a blackout. Doesn't get any better then this. 

Thrown into darkness you think we went to bed but not my family. Fire blazing, kids snug in their blankets it was time to read ghost stories. The wife through we were nuts and wanted the kids in bed. They were having none of that. The stories commenced. The lights came on a couple hours later. We all went to bed. 

The next morning the rain stopped and the plows came. I was eat breakfast listening to the radio. The we're talking about roofs clasping from the ice and snow. I knew we had to much snow on ours and decided to remove it. 

I grabbed the shovel and marched upstairs. Mind you the way to the roof is through a window in the bedroom. Opening the window I took the shovel a removed enough to get out. Mind you I'm not a small guy and the window is not a regular size. It was a little smaller. First I tried to go out head and one leg. Nope. I decided to put one leg out and then the other going backwards. My wife was standing there shaking her head in disbelief.  

Managing to finally make it out I stood up straight and landed flat on my back and began sliding down. Thank God my wife was at the window. She took hold of my sweater sleeve and held on. 

It seems I shouldn't have taken the top layer of snow off because under it was thick ice. The sleeve wasn't holding and the little women was coming one the window and couldn't hold on. I continued sliding until my feet caught the gutter and my finger managed to slip into a hook. Someone was watching over me that day. 

Don't ask me how I didn't fall to my death or climb back up to the window. I escaped with breaking all my toes and my finger. The plows cleared enough of the street to drive. After a few days toes and finger healing, I returned to work. I hired a professional to clear the roof because my ice walking days are over. 

One good thing came out of this we got a new roof from the insurance company. Alls well that ends well.