Day #73 – Digging Out

Pittsburgh, PA

Note: All photos on this entry by Nina Sowiski (http://www.pittsburghartistregistry.org/nksowiski)

We knew it was going to snow last night.  It started in the afternoon and just kept coming.  We knew it with our brains, but not with every fiber of our beings.  When I took my mid-night toilet run, I looked out the big windows to see the sky rosy pink above the pine trees – the lights of the city reflecting against and snow and sky.  At that point, I still hadn’t grasped what was happening.  Until we woke up and crawled off those wonderful sofas in Carolyn and Nina’s family room.  The snow was so deep I couldn’t tell how deep it was.

The sky was bright beautiful blue.  The world was quiet.  There were no car noises or radio noises or kid noises.  I wondered how the birds had survived the night.  We drank tea and ate oatmeal while moving from shock and denial to the reality of digging out.

Since a shovel of snow weighs more than four pounds, I was relegated to cheering.  They took turns and worked slowly to dig a path from the house to the curb.  I watched as neighbors helped one another.  Luckily, the neighbors next door had a clear path for the ambulance that came to take someone to the hospital.  Kelly moved the truck so she could shovel the snow from the bed to the front lawn.  Nina took lots of pictures. 

With lots of help from Carolyn, I finished two chemo caps.  These little caps are knit of soft cotton and used by folks who have lost their hair from chemotherapy.  The first year the Tuesday knitting gang worked on these caps, they knitted 1,000 for the Race for the Cure.  Now, more and more people donate yarn and make caps themselves.  The group makes at least 1,000 every year for the Race, but also gives them to hospitals and clinics – wherever they are needed.  It’s an honor to be part of that effort.

Saturday night we ate Nina’s famous turkey chili, followed by triple-treat ginger bread (fresh, powdered, and crystallized) and two movies.