This Is Gonna’ Suck

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I opened my eyes on Monday morning and the title of the blog was my first thought.

I’d spent Sunday not worrying about ‘keeping up’ with  the snowfall. I made a conscious decision to ignore it.

Kept looking out the window though, and had a feeling it wasn’t going to be great.

Opening the door was mind-numbing. Piles of snow that used to be our cars. 

I waded out.

The snow was to my waist, in my driveway.

I don’t cry.

I almost cried.

I worked for 15 minutes. Headed back in, had a coffee, and went back out.

I did that 4 times and had one car cleared. I pulled the car into the driveway across the street and as I headed back to the shovel one of my neighbors pulled up:

Plow on the front of his truck.

“Back away, Cliff,” he said. “I’ll hit it.”

Right on time.

I felt badly that he knew my name and I didn’t know his, but he works construction for someone and I definitely knew his face from the sites. He wouldn’t take the money I offered 5 times.

He did what he could with the other two vehicles buried. I still had a lot of work to do, but no longer felt like crying.

Cut to Tuesday. A work day.

I drove 244 miles, including a trip to visit with my Mom before there was another snowstorm announced as coming for a visit.

Kathy texted.

“I can’t put any weight on my left leg.”

The roads were filled with snow. Traffic was slow. I was sore and tired.

Bah!

Home for reports, trying to figure out what to do for dinner, and I decided that what might shake some of the despair was playing with Ollie.

We couldn’t play catch outside, but we could do roll call.

His toys are in a box. I call out the name of one and he goes and gets in. 15 toys and he’s never wrong.

Makes me laugh every time.

But still needed a dinner plan.

The phone chimed.

I ignored it.

Ten minutes later, I picked it up.

A good buddy had ordered dinner for us!

Right on time.

We ate. Sat down to watch a movie. Ollie brought me toys, one-by-one.

“This is gonna’ suck,” was certainly true.

But we made it through…

…with a little help from some friends.

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