Snowblowers Awake! A Voice Is Calling!

(Apology to J. S. Bach...)

Our morning Chorale Prelude started at about 0530, with refrain and reprise continuing as we speak.  I shall join in after posting this.

Total appears around 16" so far, still snowing, but measurements are complicated by drifting from gusty wind.

Additions to Snow supposed to cease by noonish.

I've finished my chores, Mommy, can I go out and play?

We have achieved Egress.  Two cars, driveway, sidewalk, front steps, back steps.  I've even scattered grit on the front porch, where last summer's new deck paint has turned into a Frictionless Surface suitable for Physics 145 lab experiments.

I may load the cross-country skis into one of those (AWD, ABS) cars and head out to the City Forest, after allowing a decent interval for the City to plow the parking lot and for some enthusiastic Person Younger Than Me to break trail. 

Among other "may" things for this winter, I may use Elder Son's skis* when I expect prepared trails, like up at the University Forest.  They're a bit shorter than mine, narrower, and therefore faster.  They also have more of their "fishscale" pattern still remaining on the bottom...

(My no-wax skis are about ten or fifteen years old and showing considerable wear.  The waxable skis are more like thirty-five or forty years old, laminated wood, and probably belong in an antique shop for potential ski lodge decor...)

*Elder Son left them behind when moving out to San Francisco, which sorta makes them fair game.

Quoth the Raven, "Oooh, tasty!"

Got out to the City Forest, skied a bit, got home again unscathed.  That last bit is important and never guaranteed, with idiots on the road and fresh snowfall. 

Only wildlife of note was that solitary Raven, using the capitalized form of a totem, who swooped low enough for me to hear the wind rattling in his feathers.  He didn't croak at me -- don't know if that was because I wasn't entertaining enough for applause, or he didn't want to recruit his friends and relations until he got first dibs on the tasty bits.

Took it easy because this is the first ski run of the season.

About 1.5 miles, 25 minutes.