cheerful
This was probably the best point in the day, weather-wise.
It looked like this from the front door just after I got dressed. The 2-3 cm of snow was light and fluffy, and I got out the broom and cleared the walk as far as the wood box. I then got the fireplace stoked back up and cleared the walkway down to the trailer, where I startled Lisa when I bumped the steps with the broom. After clearing the sidewalk, I put down salt on the places I know to be prone to icing.
The Union Pacific local (the "Fernley Flyer") ambled down Fernley siding just before a grain train came through on the main going the other way.
My phone is being very balky, and thus I was slow to get it deployed for this shot. I wish I'd shot video of the passage of the westbound California Zephyr because the video would have shown better than this photo does how the trains kicked up a small storm of powdery snow as they passed.
Later in the morning, I cleared the rest of the sidewalks, and none too soon, because if I'd left them snow-covered, it would have turned to ice. As it was, the sun warmed the concrete a little bit (albeit that the air temperatures were below freezing all day long) and melted most of the rest of the snow on them. As you can see from the first photo, the roof also heated up and started shedding its load of snow. Lisa said it sounded like it had started raining again when the garage roof started melting off its snow.
Now 3 cm of snow isn't much, and those of you who have to deal with meters of the stuff and have it stick around all winter long have my sympathy. The small amount we get here merely makes things look nice in the winter sunshine and gives me an excuse to get some exercise clearing the walks.
