I learned something

Gloves that aren’t waterproof suck in the snow.

That’s what I learned today. On Apr 23, two days after I was running in shorts and a t-shirt up the road in 60F weather. A day after Tia and I took a walk up the driveway and pulled out all the markers.

The weather in Colorado is definitely crazy, and today is proof of it. Delaney and I are supposed to go camping with the Scouts tonight, about 10mi away. I’d been watching weather and last weekend they were looking for 50F, possible rain. A couple days ago it was rain and low 50s.

Last night, when we went shopping for food with the scouts, it was cool, and they were calling for snow tonight. Not last night. Tonight.

I woke up around 6am and it was white outside. I couldn’t see without my glasses, but with everything outside the window white I knew it was going to be an ugly day. And it is, snow on the ground, a couple of inches as I went down to work at my desk. Power has fluctuated a few times, which makes me glad I switched UPSes and the generator tested OK the other day.

I figured our trip to UC-Denver for a tour was cancelled, but I wanted to get to the store and get a couple more things for camping. That looked like a bad idea. The Scouts are still going, though I got an email that tonight was optional for everyone. Probably a good idea as it’s going to be wet everywhere.

However Tia had a doctor’s appointment, and she left right around 11 to get down there. Five minutes later I get a call that she’s stuck in the driveway. So I get dressed, pull on ski pants, big boots, ski jacket, gloves and go start the tractor. It’s not that cold, which is good since really cold weather makes starting the tractor hard. I drive down to her, attach the tow hook to the Prius and pull her out of the driveway and slightly up the road. It’s a mess, and since she and Kyle need to come back later, I decide to plow the road once, and the driveway. I get that done, but since I’m always wiping off the windshield, the gloves are getting wet.

I didn’t think much of it until my fingers started to get really cold. I had expected one hand to be cold since I had to pull off a glove to get the gate open (it wouldn’t open for some reason), but the other one, the one wiping the glass, was cold.

I wasn’t done, and I made it worse. With the gate open, I needed to lock up the horses, which means that I needed to throw them some hay as well. To do that, I had to open the back door of the barn. To do that, I had to scoop snow away from the metal tracks, and I had to use my hands to dig things out.

So with cold, numb, wet hands, hay in my mouth and face, I finally went back in, 40 minutes later, and sat down to relax.

Ugh, what a day.