I know, I know...
Winter is cold and wet and icy and slippery and annoying. I still have to clear the steps and the walk and brush off the car, of course, but I no longer have to go outside towork when it's 30 below with the wind blowing. Well, I do currently have a part time driving job, but if the weather's bad enough to cancel or delay school, we follow suit. So even though winter can be cold and cruel and dark it's now mainly someone else's challenge.
Someone else can clear the snow off the roof for instance. I've done my share. The first was my grandfather's porch roof. Later I had to clear the roof of my own house in Brattleboro several times. I'm not planning to ever build another house, but if I do it's going to have a slippery metal roof.
The last time I cleared the roof, back in the late 90s, I realized almost instantly I had no business being up there. Being on a roof, especially a snow covered roof, requires a certain nimbleness which I no longer have. Still, I was up there and it had to be cleared. First the ell in the rear, then the back part of the main house, then up and over the ridge to clear the front. I'd nearly got the front done when the shovel slipped out of my hands and over the side. I decided it was a sign I'd done enough but when I tried to climb back up over the ridge so I could get to the ladder the roof was so slippery I couldn't do it. I stamped on the roof to get Susan's attention so she could come out and move the ladder around to the front. No response. I spent the next ten minutes waving to friends who chose that moment to drive by. I waved and stamped my foot. The friends smiled and waved back and drove away. Susan ignored it all, even when I stamped SOS in Morse Code.
The roof wasn't all that high and the snow pile I'd created was fairly deep. I could jump off. Which I did. Clear to my armpits.
I haven't been on a roof since.
I have to say it's easier to accept winter now. At most, it's a nuisance.
And with that settled, everything else looks better, too.
I felt like such a jerk for not noticing David's predicament and his frantic morse code message. I mean, really, did he think I had ever had a reason to learn Morse Code?
ReplyDeleteI have to say, however, I am happy that the incident ended his roof shoveling permanently.