Thoughts While Shoveling

Last night, actually it started yesterday afternoon, we got a traditional Nor'Easter here in Beantown. The traffic on 95 & 93 was going at a snails pace. The suggested speed limit was 45 , but I don't think I did above 30 the whole way back to town. It was tiny snow, so it was particularly difficult to see through. You could drive it, but it was slow going . Long story short- there is a lot of shoveling to be done.
However, it froze over. SO, its 6 inches deep of a hard icey substance preventing me from getting my car the 6 feet out of the driveway. At the end of the driveway is the toughest part because that's where the town plows have piled it pretty thick. Also, the sidewalk in front of the house needs to be cleared. I don't know what my brother was doing all day, but nothing was done while I was at work. When I got home, my brother had tried earlier in the day to get it teh snow blower going and he needed to fix it. SO, it wasn't from lack of effort that nothing got done. But , nothing got done.
Since I had to take the bus to work, Jack gave me a ride home and I started right in on clearing the sidewalk and driveway. It was chop and scoop the whole way. I would chop and area approximately two feet wide and one feet deep. Then I would scoop the loose ice chunks with the shovel and clear another patch of the same size. I repeated this process the length of the fron of my house. It was light when I started and very dark when I finished. It took me about an hour and a half to finish it.
While I was doing this activity, my mind would wonder. I would think "Chop, chop , chop , chop , chop, chop. okay that 's enough now let's see how much I can handle in the shovel. Chop, chop, chop -my back hurts-chop ,chop,chop-I;m going to be in pain tomorrow-chop,chop,chop-how come I don't have a soul mate ? -chop-If I had a soul mate , he would be here chopping the ice-chop,chop,chop-no-chop-he would have done it already-chop , chop , chop-if I was still with Barry he would shovel the sidewalk and driveway-chop,chop,chop-not because he's my soul mate but because he likes to shovel-chop,chop,chop-Mr Keeley used to drive Mrs Keeley to Mass on Sundays -chop,chop,chop-and then come back and pick her up after Mass was done-chop,chop,chop-Honey dip donuts-chop,chop,chop-we used to get them after Mass-chop,chop,chop-real honey dips-chop,chop,chop-I want to do a load of laundry-chop, chop,chop-I wonder if my brother is going to finish the driveway-chop,chop,chop-I'm almost done with the sidewalk-chop,chop,chop-I wish I had fried clams" Thta's what I did for an hour and half when I got home today.
The worse part was when I got in the house and "Return to Me" is on the tv-it's a movie with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny. A sappy "Chick Flick" tale David's wife dies in a tragic accident and her organs are donated and Minnie 's character was the recipient of the heart . The are in love the first time they meet, because, they're soul mates -ya see ? It's only half way through and I've cried a couple of times already.
Welcome to my Saturday night. oxo-Dot