We live in the perfect little cul-de-sac around the corner at the end of a dead-end street.  Traffic is minimal and the neighbors are great.  My yellow lab, Patience, loves her ball and a game of catch. It is her favorite thing and it gives her a chance to really stretch out and run.  She will chase the ball until she falls down from exhaustion. Even then she will continue to play, though at a much slower pace.  Living at the end of the cul-de-sac allows us to throw the ball down the street for Patience to run after.

Our Street in Winter

In the winter our street does not get plowed.  If we are lucky they will drop sand or salt as they turn the plow around.  Needless to say, the snow and ice build up and things can get rather slippery.  The other problem we have is the unevenness of the surface of the snow and ice.  One winter I was backing my car out and got hung up on a large ice bump.  It took my neighbor and I about two hours, salt, cardboard and plywood to get my car unstuck.  Did I say I have great neighbors?

This year is no different.  With the extreme cold the snow is not melting.  We do, however, have a lot more ice.  Yesterday it rained. Actually it just sprinkled which is actually more dangerous.  The water froze as soon as it hit the ground.  We had ice.  Smooth, flat ice.  You could probably ice skate in our cul-de-sac kind of ice.

Dog On Ice

Yesterday I took Patience out for her morning game of catch and her run.  Standing in the open door of our garage I threw the ball down the street.  Patience took off after the ball and immediately started slipping.  When she reached to ball she dropped her head to pick it up and tried to come to a stop.  She got the ball, but kept on going.  She slid another 50 feet or more on the ice and only stopped because she hit a pile of frozen snow.  Coming home with her ball she did not run back the way she came.  (I don’t blame her, it’s really slick.)  Patience walked through the neighbors yards and stuck to the snow and dry areas next to the houses.  Once home she refused to step onto the drive way from our snow-covered grass.  She finally came slipping back into the garage when I told her we were going into the house.  We were outside five minutes.  Four of which Patience used to get home past two neighbor’s houses.  She walked, carefully, slowly and gingerly.  She was very glad to go back inside.  So was I.

It has been an extremely cold winter in our area.  I didn’t get any higher than 12 degrees for several weeks.  The temperature was between -5 and 5 degrees farenheit in the mornings when my daughter walked to school.  We are supposed to have more snow over the weekend.  I hope so because it is always warmer than clear days and it should blow the inversion out of our valley.  The weather man says that it should get up to 37 degrees in the next couple of days.  Heat wave!  If the inversion lifts I can open the windows and air out the house.  For about 5 minutes at least.  😀

Have a great weekend.  Enjoy your weather whatever it is.