Tuesday Musings.

The weatherman told us that Winter is flexing its muscles. That’s an interesting way to describe the onslaught of snow we’ve received this first week of February.

Old Man Winter is not the only one flexing its muscles. I fear I’m already looking like Popeye the Sailor Man, that cartoon character from my youth who was always touting his big biceps. As to me, it’s been three mornings in a row shoveling show, plus tomorrow and Friday, it appears shoveling snow will be my morning agenda as well.

I guess if you have to endure tonight’s 2-3 inch snowfall, you might as well get a giggle over it, as you see in the chart from Click On Detroit’s meteorologist Paul Gross.

For the past three years, I’ve had this “deal” going with my next-door neighbor ... I shovel the snow for both our houses all Winter long, and he cuts the lawn for both properties in the growing season. I’m no math whiz, but I know that you cut the lawn more times than you shovel the snow ... um, most years anyway. The last two Winters have been mild with not too much snow, but this year we’ve been slammed. My property (and especially the driveway) is half the size of his. So, you now know why I said grrr to the Groundhog’s prognostication – it wasn’t just about putting a halt to my walking regimen.

The hardest working muscle in your body is the heart. Good thing my ticker is in good shape, so I can continue to shovel my way through February, a/k/a National Heart Month.

Heart disease runs in my family though, and my grandmother and eight of her nine siblings, succumbed to heart disease. My mom had a heart arrhythmia. I hope that giving up red meat three years ago and walking 1,050 miles in 2017 thus makes me heart smart and healthy for a long time.

As to this perpetual snow, I was perplexed that our City’s schools were all closed yesterday. We ended up getting 5 inches of snow on Sunday, so most of the schools in Michigan closed Monday. I don’t think we ever got a snow day at junior high or high school – ever! It was a 2.2 mile roundtrip daily trudge from my house to those two schools, which were side by side. I really don’t want to be one of those people that says “when I was your age ...” BUT, we didn’t get any breaks when it snowed back in the day. While my parents never gave me the lecture about walking five miles uphill to a one-room schoolhouse, they insisted that walking to school in the snow would build character, keep me from getting chubby and put roses in my cheeks. I accepted their logic and now, all these years later, I realize they were spot-on.

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net/