And I mean that quite literally…
My dogs go to the bathroom in the yard. I normally clean up after them every couple of days. In the winter, this usually isn’t possible because the snow covers up the deed before I get a chance to clean it up. I suppose I could go out there each time they go out to do their business and clean up after them. But, despite all of the torment it causes me, I’m not quite that motivated.
Normally, I find myself outside at the first thaw of the season (that’d be in February or March) chipping dog shit from the ice like an archaeologist excavating through strata on a dig. It doesn’t help that the area that our dogs do their business in is in the coldest spot in all of Upper Yoder–our entire yard can be thawed, yet that one spot is still frozen like a hockey rink. And, as you may recall from the days when there was hockey, a hockey rink is composed of ice. So I’m out there skating in my shoes, a shovel in one hand, a pooper scooper in the other. It is quite a sight. It normally takes me a few weeks until I gain the upper hand on the situation.
Needless to say, this winter’s weather has allowed me to avoid my usual winter woes. I mean I’m already two months ahead (given that the snow usually starts to fall in November), so you cannot imagine how happy this makes me. You know what they say, it’s the little things in life that count.