A Mental Visit Back Home

We finished our daily walk around 11:00 a.m. We take a 45 minute jaunt around the neighborhood, sometimes stopping to buy fresh oranges or bananas. The temperature today was 62, perfect for walking. That means it was about 72 out on the back balcony where I usually have my breakfast. The Southern exposure and ceramic tiles give it about a ten degree advantage over the shady side of the building.


I picked up the Amazon Kindle to read the newspapers and became acutely aware of the difference in climate here in Egypt. One article conveyed the good news that it will be fifteen below zero on Thursday night. This will form "good ice" for the U.S Pond Hockey Championships that begin Friday in Minneapolis at Lake Nokomis.


The other article that caught my eye was a report on snowblower thefts in the Twin Cities. Bold, brazen! What else could you call these low-lifes that would take another Minnesotan's defense against the ravages of winter! The story included the sad tale of a two-time loser whose replacement blower was also stolen.

A separate short article provides advice for protecting your own snowblower. It offers five steps that include painting some identification on the blower to make recovery easier. But the final step betrays the writer's lack of actual experience with a snow blower: "block in the snow blower with a vehicle." O, yes by all means, do that!

I picture myself rising in the morning to eighteen inches of new-fallen snow, opening the garage door and thinking, "now, how do I get my snow blower out to the snow!"


I'd be left using my old shovel to dig the vehicle out so that I could move the snow blower.