Snow...and LOTS of it

As you know, on the 11th the Twin Cities got a LOT of snow. In about an 18 hour time frame it got between 15-20 inches of snow, depending on where in the metro you were. It resulted in two snow days for me off of work (which has no happened in the four years I have been up there)

So, here's my tutorial - How to move your car in 18 inches of snow:

1st step: Walk out to the car without getting too much snow in your shoes.
2nd step: Try to find your car in the heaps of snow.


3rd step: Assess the situation in front of you and realize, "Yup, that's a lot of snow!"

4th step: After identifying your car and approaching you, you realize you must remove 18 inches of snow to get the shovel out of the trunk (Thank you again, Lily, for telling me to get that when I first moved to MN)

5th step: Once you got the shovel out, you realize you should have packed a snow blower in the trunk instead.
6th step: You realize there's melting snow already in your shoes, so the logical thing is to first make a path way around the car to avoid further snow in the shoes.

7th step: Start on the top and use the shovel to remove heaps of snow.

(Half of the windshield cleaned)

8th-12th step: Well you finally get the car cleaned off enough to be able to attempt to drive it to a new spot where it wont get ticketed that night as they plow the streets. Ah, but now that you've freed the car, you need a new place to park it. If you're lucky, you'll get one of the three limited alley parking spots that are safe to park in. Oh, but wait, no so fast, you can't move it that easily! You must clean out the parking space, which probably hasn't had a vehicle in it for about two hours...yes more shoveling! Well once you get that cleared out, you ask the kind neighbor who is also out with his snow blower to borrow his trash can to save the spot you just spent time digging out. You walk back around the block to your car and hope you removed enough snow in front of your car to get you into the trenches of the street. And now matter how much shoveling you do, you realize you don't have the energy to shovel the whole street, which is what is needed for your car to move in nearly two feet of snow. Back and forth...Drive and reverse, and drive and reverse, you keep rocking the car to get it to move inches at a time. And then a truck start to turn down the street facing you. There's not room for the two of you to go down the street, and you're stuck blocking half of the street with your stuck car. But here, for once, Minnesota Nice comes in handy, and the gentleman ask you if you'd like a pull out on to the main street (about 150 feet). You can't turn down an opportunity like that and thank him for his help when you get to the main street and remember what it's like to have traction again!

Whatever step we are now: You finally are able to park your car in to the spot you had cleared. due to the tight fit though, you have to do some fancy turning and park your car in backwards.

(You're considerate enough to at least shovel out a path way next to your car from the apartment door to the alley so that your fellow apartment-mates will have a place to walk)

(Half of that is the snow you had to shovel around to get a parking spot for you car)

To Uncle David

As you know, one of the ways I like to remember people are by the things they taught us. I think I do this because it’s one of the best ways to keep the honor, memory and stories of the person alive. And over the past week, I’ve had time to think about what Uncle David had taught me, and I realized he helped give me one of my best qualities: Work hard in a sane way. Most say, “word hard” or “be a hard worker.” However, I think most forget to say what Uncle David taught me from an early age, “Keep your sanity while working hard.”

Here’s a story to exemplify what I mean: When I was in middle school, we put up the retaining wall in our back yard. We had a number of people over helping us. And as I recall, it was a hot day with lots of heavy lifting, shoveling, etc. Uncle David was over to help. While some were furiously working with little to no breaks, Uncle David would pull me aside and have me take a break with him. I remember him essentially saying, “Don’t over work yourself; the wall will get done. Some have their way of working hardcore, non-stop till the job is done, but it’s not worth the wear and tear and on the mind and body.” And in more recent years, when we were painting Great-Grandma’s house, he took the same approach.

There’s no doubt that Uncle David was a hard worker, and did quality work to be proud of. But I think he was able to do that quality of work because he understood the importance of balance in doing things, working hard and keeping one’s sanity as well. I know when I’m in the middle of big work loads, I often think about what Uncle taught me, and take a break when needed. Not only do I keep my sanity, but you go back to the task refreshed and ready to take it on.

As I alluded to, another thing Uncle David taught me was to do quality work that you could be proud of. Sure there’s more than one way to solve a problem, some ways being easier than others. It’s alright to pick the easy way, as long as you don’t sacrifice quality or doing a thorough job.

Uncle also taught me to be socially considerate. When we were younger, and would see some of our Guro cousins basically once a year on New Years, Uncle David tried to make sure Ann and I, who were shy, were included in their games and activities. On the same coin, he also reinforced the importance of helping out the family. Uncle David was always willing to use his skills help family members with their house work.

And, in an funny way, Uncle David also stressed the importance of going to church, in a somewhat subliminal way. He would take Kumi and Kenji to Sunday school almost every week when we younger. Uncle would back in his truck under one of the trees, and read the Sunday newspaper while we were in Sunday school. And though he may not have sat in a pew, if you would have asked, he would have said, “Yup I went to church today.” But the fact that he would regularly take them to church, put in the time, patience and effort to bring them, still speaks a lot I think. (I could go into some discussion comparing the communion of the Trinity and the communion of the family, but I’ll spare that for some other time.)

And last, but not least, Uncle David taught me not to be scared of wrapping Christmas gifts in obscure things with masking tape. I have a collection in fact of some of his unique wrapping ideas, and they will always be treasured now.

I really wished I could have thanked Uncle David in person for all the lessons and memories, but I’m sure he now knows.

Thank you, Uncle David, for all that you did!

Holiday Season

Well, we got about four inches of snow between yesterday afternoon and early this morning. And so tonight they called a snow emergency to plow the streets. Last night when I made it home from work, which took four times the normal time, I grabbed a parking space in the ally so I dont have to worry about the snow emergency that I figured they would call. And I didn’t feel like loosing the great parking space I nabbed last night so I didn’t do much today. I did some chores and cleaning around the apartment, otherwise I’ve been sitting around watching tv. I did go out though and get some exercise scrapping off my car and shoveling snow from around it.

I finally started feeling better from the “sinus infection” I had just in time for Thanksgiving. And I don’t know if I really had a “sinus infection” but that is what one of my doctor friends diagnosed me with over the phone. It only bothered me for three weeks. And while I didn’t have sinus problems per se, I did have a throbbing headache whenever I wasn’t on Tylenol. And I didn’t wan to stay on Tylenol unless I absolutely needed to go out and do something because I didn’t want to end up with Tylenol withdraw headaches when I was better. So I suffered through what I could, but it was miserable! Glad to say I haven’t needed to take Tylenol in over a week now!

Oh yes, I did go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I went with Chris and a couple of his coworkers to the outlet malls…at midnight. The outlets actually opened at 10pm. By the time we got there at midnight, the parking lots were full and we had to park in over flow lots at one of the local schools. But they had over flow lots at a number of different places with shuttle buses running. (The shuttle bus driver said they had been running from 8pm of Thanksgiving night and were going to be running through most of Friday.) And it is an outdoor outlet mall (all the doors to the different stores open to the outside like at Folsom)…so you can imagine the fun of shopping when it’s -2 outside and windy! But Minnesotans are hardy and enjoy it, and they enjoy their black Friday deals. The Coach line was about an hour wait outside! We didn’t need anything, at Coach thankfully.

Tidbit by Thomas:

Incase you are stumped by what Thomas may want for Christmas, here’s a couple ideas:

• Gift certificates for Amazon, Michaels, and Target are handy (I recently discovered that Target does offer some good produce and food for descent prices)
• I have the two butsudans still and one of these days/years I’d like to be able to get the two side scrolls for them of Shinran and Rennyo. http://stores.buddhistbookstore.com/Detail.bok?no=60 ($50 can be steep, but if you wanted to specifically contribute money towards them, you can tell me.)
• I still collect stamps and coins, but I haven’t had a chance to really get any recently cause of my fixed/negative income…But here’s some of the sheets/panes I find interesting. (I have linked some of them to the post office store in case you want to see)
  
• (Early TV Memories)
• (Sunday Funnies)
• (Vancouver 2010 Olympics)
• State Flags (They came out in different sets)
• I dont think it has gift certificates, but if you wanted to designate a monetary gifts towards Ancestry.com, that would be useful too (paying quarterly is $50, paying monthly is $20)
  
• Green stuff is always useful too as it is always the right size, always the right color, and will always help me survive!

Two weeks till I'm home for Christmas break!