Last night I checked the weather forecast that goes through September 20. I was reading off the highs – about mid-September, our highs will consistently be in the mid 80’s. When I got to September 20, I said “Dang it!” Vince said “Why? I’ll take mid-80’s.” I told him . . I want to see snow in the forecast! As I already knew, he told me . . don’t hold your breath hoping for snow til at least December. It could happen in October! Could . . but probably not.
I understand that not everyone loves the snow but I do. If we were having to leave the house often, I would not wish for snow! We’re able to stay home and not go out, except to take the dogs out. We don’t even usually shovel the driveway. We just stay home til it melts. Of course, if we don’t shovel the driveway and UPS or someone drives on it, then we’re wishing we had shoveled it.
We’ve learned a few things since getting the dogs. There’s no way to walk outside here without having to cross ice when there’s ice. The deck is above the patio that we use downstairs so the rain, ice, snow goes right through the spaces between the boards. The front door has a small covered porch but then there’s three or four steps that aren’t covered. We keep bales of straw for spreading across the patio. We also learned to buy those in November and put them inside the greenhouse until the weatherman is saying ice. Then we’ll bring one, or part of one into the downstairs garage so if there’s ice, we can toss the straw out, walk on it and keep tossing straw til we have a safe path. I think Cooper will use a puppy pad but I’d rather him go outside. No way will Oscar use a puppy pad but as soon as he gets to the straw, he thinks he’s outside enough and he’ll use that . . even if it’s on the patio so that requires extra cleaning but we can do it.
We have ice cleats but, since we can’t get outside without walking on concrete and since we wouldn’t wear them on concrete, and since trying to sit in a chair and put them on our shoes while holding a dog is impossible, we don’t use them much. Last year I ended up keeping a pair of Crocs in a plastic box with a lid at the end of the covered pergola. I would wear regular Crocs out to where the ones were with the ice cleats and switch shoes. That was much quicker than trying to get the ice cleats on while hanging on to a leash with a wiggly dog at the end.
Maybe we’ll be lucky and have snow and no ice this year but . . I still have a while to wait for the arrival of snow!
Sharon Bass says
You should try to find a pair of ladies golf shoes to slip on. I think the majority of them these days have soft spikes that are made of plastic rather than metal. They would help give you some traction.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I checked on those before ordering the ice cleats and,from what I read, the traction pattern can get clogged and they aren’t as sturdy on ice as the metal cleats. At our age, I didn’t want to take any chances. I can’t say that they don’t work because I haven’t tried them but at our ages, I felt like it was better to go with the ones that were specifically recommended for ice.