day...whoa Nellie.....312

 I tried clearing my sidewalk today

    There are a couple of inches of ice under and over the snow.  My front walk is impassible in the present state, except for a 10 foot stretch from the porch  toward the driveway.  The next 15 feet are dangerous.

    Withe the expected  first wave of snow starting tonight, I though I would clean up the driveway, which had some drifting from the windy conditions the other day.

    Fired up the snowblower, cleared off the drifted part, then I decided to try blowing the sidewalk.

    That proved futile.

    My snowblower has 5 forward gears and 2 reverse gears.  It's a big snowblower.  I am actually trading with John and Emily for their smaller one because I have a guy who does the driveway after a 2 inch snow.

    Which has nothing to do with the story.

    I go down the sidewalk, blowing nothing, and decide it is futile.  So I put the blower in reverse and started backing up.  On ice.

    The next think I know is I am speeding backward down the frozen sidewalk, my feet barely under me and holding on for dear life.

    At some point, you would have thought I would have just taken my hands off the handle to stop the sucker, but we were going so fast and my feet were moving non stop trying to maintain a balance I was afraid to take my hand off the drive because I did not want to fall down and get dragged to who knows where. (I can see the headline:  Local idot run over by snowblower....film at 11.)

    It was almost as funny as the time Julia got pinned to a snowbank at our Skare Court house when she put it in reverse and lost her  balance.

    There is never a camera around when you need it, because today's display would have been a social media hit.

    Eventually I hit dry surface and was able to get control of my body and release the drive lever.  No harm, no foul, as the old saying goes.

    Forecasts change....but tonight Rochelle is sitting in the middle of a band of snow espected to be anywhere from 6 to 12 inches, starting late Sunday.  That should make the start of the week interesting indeed.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love