I'm not even sure what to say about this. It's April 4th and we've gotten almost 18 inches of snow in the past four days... 6 inches on March 31st and almost 12 inches over the past two days. It's crazy.
I woke up at 5am this morning to begin the shoveling. The moon hung low in the southern sky and the faint moonbeams sparkled on the fresh snow. I made my way around the front of the house and down the sidewalks toward the driveway. By the time I was finishing up the driveway, dawn was arriving and the sky was slowly getting lighter. The moon had disappeared and the birds finally began their morning song. As the sky brightened, snow began to fall again. Big fluffy flakes swirling in the breeze.
Part of me wants to whine about how unfair this is. All the snow had just melted the week before and sidewalks were finally blissfully dry! We were taking regular walks and enjoying the longer days again!
But another part of me wants to accept what is and enjoy what I can of it. Maybe this is the last big snowfall for some dog out in the world who won't live to see next year's snowfall. Maybe there's joy in this snowstorm. Charlie is a good role model for this line of thought. Dogs live for the moment and enjoy whatever comes their way. Everything is good.
You should have seen her eyes light up this morning when I let her out in the backyard to go potty! I brought the shovel with me to scoop out an area for our other dog, Peanut - a chihuahua mix - to go potty when she got up later (if the snow is too deep, she won't go out). At first, Charlie thought I was coming out to play with her, but I patiently explained that I needed to shovel all the sidewalks on our corner lot and the double-wide driveway before I could play. This is a hard concept for Charlie, or any dog for that matter, to understand.
Why would you want to work before play????
An hour and a half later of shoveling and thawing out for a bit while sipping my morning coffee, I finally went in the backyard for some playtime with my kiddo. She was elated! We had a good bit of fun throwing her ball into the deep piles so she could romp around and dig for it. But, eventually I had to go to work.
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I came home at lunch and spent the entire hour hanging out with her in the backyard, continuing our game of fetch and "go find it." The sun was brilliant and the glare off the snow was blinding. With the sun now higher in the sky than it would be in winter, the snow has begun melting already. The temps will remain quite cold for the remainder of this week, so much of the snow will stick around, but it is slowly condensing into smaller snowbanks.
Once again I had to return to work, but Charlie seemed a bit more satisfied this time. I want her to enjoy this as much as possible before it's gone. We never got any big snowfalls like this over the winter and she absolutely loves diving into the deep snow to find her toys. This is her one big last HURRAH of the season, and I'm doing my best to enjoy it with her.
Admiring her playfulness and the way the snow sticks to her eyelashes and frosts her whiskers is lovely. The melting snow on her back glistened and sparkled in the sunshine. She was absolutely adorable and filled my heart with joy.
