So this home owner thing, part 2..

It snowed yesterday. Which it's done before, but yesterday was the first time we got 4-5 inches all at once. It started in the morning and snowed all day. We were concerned enough that roads were going to be scary once the sun started setting that we left campus at 3:15.

So we got home before dark, which was nice. It was also still moderately warm - pr'bly about 30 degrees - so the snow had not yet become ice on the sidewalks. And the well-meaning neighbor who has had a tendency to take his little snow blower over our sidewalks for an inch dusting, thereby packing down an inch of nice, fluffy, easy to shovel snow into half an inch of hard, packed, difficult to shovel snow hadn't yet managed to moosh everything down into little chunks of ice.

And because I'm determined not to continue the life-of-no-yardwork my father set for his daughters (dad mowed the lawn, shoveled the driveways, etc., so my sister and I never did those things until we got to be adults), I went out to shovel last night. We don't have much sidewalk - just a strip across the front (short-side of the lot) with our walk way out to the street - so it doesn't really take very long to do, and, as I mentioned, it was relatively warm out. And (largely because I was never forced to do it as a child I'm sure) I don't mind shoveling (except the snow plow berms because they're hard, packed, difficult to shovel snow).

But there's a trick I've not yet learned. It's the whole trick of how not to have cranky mid-lower back muscles the next day. At least this time I remembered to switch hands while shoveling, so the muscles on both sides are equally cranky. But I've not ever heard anyone else complain about this malady, which leads me to believe there's a trick. So, fess up. You know who you are.

(Of course, some of the stiffness *could* be due to sitting on the floor wrapping presents, or retrieving two pairs of Fuzzy Feet and two Lucy bags from the washer, or sitting in my rocking chair spinning, but I refuse to believe any of those activities is taxing enough to cause this.)