Oatmeal! With Raisins! For Energy!

One winter in the 1950s we didn't have snow. My brothers and I wanted a white Christmas! Surely it would snow before Christmas! But it didn't. And that Christmas our "big" present from Mom and Dad was a sled. If we got snow that winter it was mere dustings of white powder and not the stuff of which sleds need in order to provide good play time.

Some winters we had satisfying snows and my brothers used the corn scoop to shovel the sidewalk from the door to the driveway. (I borrowed this photo from a website and I have no association to the brand.) Corn scoops are highly efficient at grain or snow. But they can be heavy, especially with a load of grain or, in this case, snow. It was hard work. We didn't have a snow blower then. We didn't even have a real snow shovel!

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was check out the window. Ahhhh! This is the first time in days we do not have to anticipate shoveling snow right after breakfast. That's because for the first time in days there is no fresh accumulation of snow. I'm pretty okay with that!

We had a record snow this year. The city north of us received 20.7 inches over the several day storm. I would guess ours was similar. And our state capital, Des Moines, has experienced the snowiest December on record with 27.7 inches for the month! (May they never break that record!)

The city crew will be out today. And if they blade the streets, the side-drift of the snow from the blade will create dams of heavy, hard, chunky snow across the ends of every driveway in town. Those dams are very hard to move and everybody grumbles curses when the snowplow goes by for the third time in three days, plowing up a new dam each time.

I think this calls for an oatmeal breakfast.


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