I didn’t see it coming. Sure, they’d predicted snow for last night, and I awakened early to a bright and cheery coating of white on everything that had previously been all sticks and twigs and brown leaves just yesterday. The metal patio furniture, the wooden bench, the grass now gone brown all wearing lovely new garb. I always look forward to the first snow.
In fact, my jubilant Facebook post early this morning was a photo of the wood pile and the rhododendron with snow covering both in the fresh morning air.
Later in the day, I stepped outside into the yuck of Slushvember, my newly coined name for this latter part of November, when all bets are off for trying to shovel snow without digging up clods of green and brown mud while sloshing mostly water and watery glop off the edge of the shovel blade. Really, there’s very little shoveling involved. It’s more a matter of just shoving around scads of mush with the shovel blade while turning up too many pine cones I never had time to fully rake up. Oh, and the leaves I missed were suddenly upended as if to remind me of my autumnal chores left undone. This snow came one weekend too soon. Hmmm, maybe the rake would have been a better choice for today. Or a squeegee?
I must apologize to our postal carrier for my ineptitude and complete inability to clear the way in front of our roadside rural mailbox for her next drive-by. It seems that, today, Slushvember has gotten the better of me. Mud Season beware, yet another of Vermont’s shoulder seasons is giving you a close run for your money.
Perhaps it’s this nagging case of COVID-19 that’s been plaguing me, or perhaps the loss of taste in a guy who really does love food is what’s changed my perspective on snow as a possible adversary. But, no, I await that next snowfall when I can put Slushvember behind and get out there for some cross-country skiing with slushy days a faint memory and muddy ones a distant thought.
Happy Slushvember. It’s one to remember. Please add your comments if you wish with your own Slushvember story!
Dave Celone writes from Sharon, VT high up on a hill where slush will soon be a thing of the past.
I’m sorry to hear you’re still dealing with Covid. Hopefully you will feel better in the near future.
Sandy D. from Wilder, VT.