Miss Celie's Pants

I told Trena this yesterday, but she didn’t believe me. But, in Baltimore, after you shovel out your car, you ‘save’ your space with a lawn chair. I thought it was kind of ghetto when I first moved here.  But, honestly — when you’ve spent three days digging 4 feet of snow out your car and shoveling the entire road, you want to be able to come home and park. I know it’s public property. But, you just don’t care. I have had trash cans, recycling bins, lawn mowers and such stolen from outside. But, if you put something in your parking space after a snow — you will always have a space. They will steal your trash can, but they respect the lawn chair.

This week I’ve seen headboards, children’s chairs, a doll house and even an old tire.  But, by tradition — you use a lawn chair. Think about it, we’re mostly street parking. We don’t have driveways. I have a garage, but my alley is inaccessible with all the snow.

My porch chairs are from Restoration Hardware. And, I’m quite frankly afraid they wouldn’t be in the space when I come back. Plus, I promised myself that this year I was going to be classy and not put anything in my spot. I was so sure that my neighbors would respect my space. But, alas. No. Someone took my parking spot.

So, I’m saving my space the classy way. With two orange cones borrowed from the Baltimore PD.

Right. All in total we had 27 inches in northeast Baltimore city. Three days of two and three hour shoveling. We even shoveled out our own street since we knew plows weren’t getting to us. My arms and upper back are going to be A-mazing.  But, I’m now wearing cock-up braces on both hands because of my tendinitis and it just hurts too much to sew. Like wake up in the middle of the night wrists throbbing hurts too bad. That being said, they are calling for another 10 to 12 inches starting today into Wednesday afternoon. There is truly nowhere for us to put any more new snow.

I did have to go into work yesterday evening (and tonight too). A friend’s stepson with a four wheel drive picked me up. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store. I now understand a little what it was like to live in Eastern Europe during Soviet times:

There is NO FOOD LEFT IN BALTIMORE

The only red meat there was like beef tongue

Not a single piece of chicken. Just one big fat frozen turkey that was probably too heavy to walk back home.

Baked goods were demolished

And not one freaking slice of white bread.

Now, let me say this. Only the crappy food was gone. Plenty of skim milk, tea, yogurt, fresh veggies. But, white bread, whole milk, butter, oil, processed, sliced, anything that is best served fried was cleaned out of my Giant. Make of that what you will.

Oh, I won’t even talk about the guys smoking a Black and Mild carrying three and four chicken boxes walking along 33rd street in snow drifts pants dragging on the ground.

That’s Nigel directly in front. I think, lol, I think the snow is almost as tall as him!

Yeah. Whatever. 20 inches. Pfffttt. The only thing that troubles me are that I’m supposed to have my  gutters from the last snow storm fixed on Monday. And now, the gutters on my patio and garage are creaking under the weight. Machts Nichts. What are you gonna do, right?

Backyard. See my 32 gallon trash cans??

Now, what really bothers me, is that I’m not going to Fla. this week. There was a massive reorganization at my job and I really need to be there during this transition. I don’t mind losing my money on non-refundable ticket. But, I do mind missing out on my HP date and seeing my parents. But, I gave that an hour of moping and put my big girl panties back on.

That’s my grill, garage and patio furniture.