Winter Settling Moon
No Denver Post newspaper sleeve to fit under our mail box yet. Paper, wrapped in orange gets tossed on the driveway. Makes sense. First morning with my new whiz bang snow blower, all yellow and rust free. I set out toward Black Mountain Drive from our garage, learning the various maneuvers: joystick turns snow thrower, tilt joystick snow thrower chute changes angle, right grip engages movement, left the augur, various speeds and the “power steering” which consists of levers on each handle that, when pressed, disengage the wheel on that side. It was a cold morning, around 9.
When I got to the road, I picked up the morning paper and tossed it back toward the house, not quite making the covered area over our front door. More fiddling with the controls, learning to seat them in muscle memory. Though the snow was powder, the driveway had slushy matter from a previous snow storm and made the going a little tougher than I’d imagined.
By the time I hit the front of the house it was a surprise to see orange come out the chute of the snow blower, followed by, yes, shredded newspaper. Today’s Denver Post went through the augur, up the chute and out in many pieces over our driveway. A lesson.
The small plants and patchy grass, the rocks and lodgepole pine stumps have disappeared under a blanket of white and the dogs come romping in, shaking snow as they run. I’d say they like it.
