The Blizzard of 2011

I still have 2 book reviews to write, but today I feel like I need to comment on the Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music here). It was a cold February day in Iowa. At 1 pm on February 1st, it began to snow...and it continued on into the night. The wind howled at 30+ mph. Sometime during the night, the snow stopped, but the wind continued. At 4:45 am, my place of employment auto-called me to let me know not to come to work. At 4:50 am, my place of employment auto-called my cell phone to let me know not to come to work. At 4:55 am, my place of employment auto-called the home phone (again) to let me know not to come to work. Apparently they really didn't want me there.

Fast forward a few hours, and my wife (bless her) and I were outside shoveling. Yes, we were shoveling because we like the challenge...and because we don't have anywhere to put a snow blower...and because we're too cheap to buy a snow blower. We had a 4 foot drift across our driveway to clear...with a shovel. We managed to get the driveway clear and thankfully our neighbor with a snow blower did our sidewalk. It was about noon at this time.

Around 1 pm, the plow driver (God Bless those men) came by and closed in our driveway. My wife and I went out again and spent another 30 minutes clearing the snow that the plow pushed into our driveway. We have 5 foot high piles of snow at the end of our driveway, and at least 3-4 foot high piles all along our driveway. All totalled, between my wife and I, we spent 3 hours shovelling. I'm going to be very sore tomorrow.

The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) dumped ~13 inches on our little corner of Iowa. I know it dumped greater amounts elsewhere, and is still dropping huge amounts of snow as it moves east. My story is being replayed all across our country (stupid global warming).

But, in the midst of this, I actually find that I'm grateful to God for a great many things.

I'm grateful that...

...my wife is so wonderful and so willing to shovel. In fact, most of the time she does all the shovelling. She likes the challenge.
...my kids were so good while we were out shovelling.
...my place of employment saw fit to give us the day off (sort of, still gotta make up the time)
...we have a warm house and that the power stayed on
...we have neighbors willing to snow blow our sidewalk
...my friend Nuke and his wife got home from the hospital before the worst of the storm hit
...the plows cleared our street, even though they pushed an insane amount of snow into my driveway
...I didn't have to shave (I hate shaving but I look silly with a full beard)

Here's hoping that the rest of you who experienced The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) can find as much of a silver lining as I did.