Not quite like Montana

Today Neal and I spent about 4 hours clearing packed snow and ice off our front driveway - my muscles are so sore! The long side driveway has been ignored, but I hope it melts enough by morning that I'll be able to move my car in time to go to church - it's been parked there for several days.
To clear the driveway we used a scoop shovel along with a flat-edge garden shovel to break up the ice. Neal did a lot of it and I'm very grateful. I'd work for awhile and then have to go inside to sit down and rest until my heart quit pounding and I quit shaking ----- I felt very old and out of shape, but it was hard work to lift that heavy snowpack and toss it or push then lift it out of the way. This cul-de-sac has slushy messy roads, but I think we can drive on them okay now that we can easily get out of the sloped driveway.
Clearing the snow did remind me of Montana in some ways, but there is more moisture in this snow so it's heavier. And in Montana the snow plows have metal blades that actually scrape the snow off down to the pavement; here their rubber blades just push along the mess and smooth it out. Plus - they don't come up on this hill and my home in Montana was on an arterial so I had first class service with every storm (except they had a tendency to plow over my driveway that I would then have to dig out).
The postal carrier came today for the first time since the 24th, so we finally received a gift package along with a stack of Christmas cards and some medication. Nice to have mail service again. The trash pickup hasn't happened since the 11th, so there is a lot to be picked up, whenever that happens.
However, the person who deserves a trophy for on-time consistent service no matter what the weather, is the lady who delivers our daily paper. Each morning at 6am she comes roaring up the street to our driveway, parks at an angle, opens the window and tosses the paper in an impressive arch so that it flies over the hood of her car and lands (usually) on our sidewalk. I think she is terrific - no 4-wheel drive, just a little car with a courageous driver.