With last Wednesday’s snowstorm just a distant memory, I set out on a walk this morning. I needed that walk to get the kinks out.  For the second day in a row, I woke up feeling like a steamroller ran over me, the result of shoveling that heavy snow on Thursday morning.  On Friday, I e-mailed my boss, Robb, when I checked in, and said “every muscle feels sore – is it because I am getting old or from shoveling all that snow yesterday?”  I figure he’s been around nearly a decade longer than me, thus more worldly and would provide me with the answer.  He merely answered “Yep” … well that was a noncommittal lawyer’s response so I’ll assume it was all that heavy lifting!

Yesterday, when I went outside to run the car, I toyed with the idea of taking a walk, but I could see icy patches and snow-covered sidewalks as I glanced up and down the street, so I took a pass on that idea. Today, however, it was much better … especially on the sunny side of the street.  In fact, I was surprised to see for those many homeowners, that had not shoveled their snow, the sun had done an admirable job of clearing away the white stuff and even the ice.  Hmmmm.  Of course, I live on shady side of the street so the sun is basically no help to me.

The streets, however, were clear as a bell, but the sidewalks, as I mentioned above, were dicey in some spots, so I took my trek to the streets most of the time. On a busy weekday morning, that’s not a great idea, but on a sleepy Saturday morn, when very few people are out and about, it works well.

It was a beautiful morning and the sun was shining brightly – that sun makes all the difference in the world, no matter how cold it is. It just makes you feel good.  The sights and sounds along the way suggested that if you weren’t so bundled up, those songbirds twittering from way up high, several woodpeckers with their rhythmic rat-a-tat-tat on the trees along Emmons Boulevard, and many wind chimes tinkling gently in the breeze, might just make you forget it was February and you’d think that Spring had arrived.

Well, almost … sometimes you must use your imagination just a little.

I did not see a single soul while walking, but I passed two good-looking snowmen on the Boulevard – both were roly-poly and quite large. The first had red candy eyes, a long and very crooked carrot nose and skinny twigs for arms.  The second man of snow had been pumping iron as he had much larger, thicker twigs for arms.  He was sporting a black wool scarf wrapped tightly around his “neck”, but he was wearing a rather blank stare because the creator of this snowman left off the eyes, nose and mouth.

I was surprised to see that the Creek was not frozen over and the Canada geese were enjoying a morning get together. They were squawking, and in the still morning, the raucous sound seemed even noisier than ever.  As usual, one or two of the geese feel the need to “shout” over the others to get their point across.  And, if the shouting doesn’t work, wing-flapping and hissing is a sure way to get the other’s attention.

There’s one in every crowd I tell you.