It's a snow trance thing...

I live in a small town in Northern Ohio. We got socked in the stomach with (another) major snowstorm this weekend.

So, I put on the boots and hat and gloves, picked up a perky blue plastic shovel and headed out to toss the snow around. It was quiet. It was too quiet. It was that eerie, "has something bad happened and am I the only person left alive" kind of quiet.

Shoveling snow is a surreal experience. It lets your mind wander from thought to thought..a kind of free association produced by the cold and the hypnotic gray-white of ground merging with sky.

- who came up with idea of plastic snow shovels? What do they actually DO for you? Mostly, they just skim the bottom layer of snow. What sense does that make? Sure, you may have removed the majority of snow, but you've also pushed that glazy bottom layer down in the nooks and crannies of the pavement. So all you've really accomplished is clearing away any traction you may have had and created a slick surface for which you may be sued. I have my grandfather's big, honkin' metal shovel. Steel, not wimpy aluminum. That sucker takes half the sidewalk with it each time you scoop...but the concrete that's left is clean as a whistle!

- who first stated that shoveling snow caused increased risk of heart attack in men? Googling for all these words: snow shoveling men heart attack = 58,900 and then snow shoveling women heart attack = 55,800. But you don't hear about the increased risk to women much, do you? Is it some grand men's club conspiracy? Isn't it convenient that women (the more nurturing sex) are out there shoveling just as the bowl games, play-off games and the like are starting? ("No, honey, let me push around 80 tons of snow, I don't want you to keel over and die from a heart attack." "Okay, thanks. Before you do, fix me a sandwich with hard salami and cheese with mayo. White bread is fine. Don't forget the chips and dip."). Over the course of the weekend, I saw far more women shoveling than men. The men I did see doing snow removal were there with the snowblowers, tractors with snow blades, etc. -- the "power tools". Take that any way you want.

See here:
snow shoveling 1

and here:
snow shoveling 2

- when it snows like this, why is it that the MSM only seems to think that it's happening in New York? I mean, they report the bad weather in St. Louis until Chicago is hit, and they report Detroit and Cleveland for a couple of hours. But once New York is in the radar, those other cities don't really exist. There were little snippets of reporting from "the Midwest" ('cause there's New York and there's California and the states in the middle are really only one, big [red-colored] blob. At the point that the first flake fell on Rockefeller Center, we Midwesterner were on our own.

- why do dogs risk a "time-out" in their crate for peeing in the house rather than go outside for 15 seconds when there is snow on the ground; but they will stand in a foot of snow for 15 minutes to bark at the dog next door?

I love shoveling snow...but I love when it's done more.

A time, not a term

President Bush gave an inaugural address today for outlining his agenda for a time, not a term. The President asked Americans for a selfless dedication to grander ideals and service to others that has not been asked in a generation. These requests were not for donations of money or labor until the aftermath of a hurricane, tsunami or other natural disaster has been cleared away. It is a request for a commitment to lift peoples out of a life of hopelessness and helplessness. It is not only poverty of purse, but poverty of spirit that plagues these people.

For those of us who lived through the "me" generation of the 80s, that mindset did not end as we ushered in the 90s. For most of us, that generation ended on September 11, 2001.

These bold endeavored outlined by the President today will not be achieved in four years, they may not be achieved in 40 years. Rather, President Bush put us on a path today. A path to a more peaceful world. For the instant gratification generation of 250 cable channels, remote controls, Game Boy, XBox and movies-on-demand, this may be a foreign concept. Work for which the worker himself may not be compensated. Have we become so self-absorbed that we cannot strive for the greater good? I hope not. It negates the sacrifices that so many of our ancestors made tens and hundreds of years ago.

For those who say we should not walk this path, I think Prime Minister Blair said it best in his address to the U.S. Congress in July, 2003"

And I know it's hard on America. And in some small corner of this vast country, out in Nevada or Idaho or these places I've never been to but always wanted to go -- (laughter) -- I know out there, there's a guy getting on with his life, perfectly happily, minding his own business, saying to you, the political leaders of this country, "Why me, and why us, and why America?" And the only answer is because destiny put you in this place in history in this moment in time, and the task is yours to do.

President Bush's speech
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050120-1.html

Mr Blair's Speech
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/international/worldspecial/17WEB-BTEX.html?ex=1106370000&en=a70d68485d1be463&ei=5070&oref=login&position=&pagewanted=print&position=