End and Begin
Yesterday Fairmont got snow rather than rain. Not a staggering amount of snow, but a fair amount that where it drifted became a quite substantial amount. When it had stopped snowing for a while, and I had finished supper and my treadmill time, I went out to deal with it.
A good many folks have opined that 2006 was not a good year, and if you're one of them then that the last day of the year gave me the gift of a broken gas cap on the snowblower will seem an apt end-cap to the year. As it was New Year's Eve the problem was not solved by proper replacement, but patched with duct tape.
Between shoveling steps and other places that the snowblower couldn't deal with directly and hefting the snowblower around (it is self-propelled, but turning with fixed wheels is a rascal) I got a bit sore. Also, I was outside longer than I had expected and started feeling the cold creep into me. I spent much of last night with a heating pad on both to warm up and to try soothe the soreness.
This morning I woke up to clear skies and no new snow. I don't know if the Scandinavian bit about having pickled herring as the first food of the new year bringing good luck works, but I'm willing to try it and so had a bit. If nothing else, at least it tastes and smells better than the stinky beans known as black-eyed peas. Jay maintains that one must eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck. I say that after having to eat those, the rest of the year can't help but seem an improvement.
The real breakfast was buckwheat pancakes. I like them, but don't have them often. They're quite good and quite filling and it's probably a very good thing I only rarely eat them. We didn't have much maple syrup left and now we're out. That's not a big deal, just something to keep in mind on a future visit to the store.