Trares
I knew I had to appreciate it while I could.
In a few years, getting Anthony to do anything — clean his room, take out the garbage, move from the couch — is going to be met with eye rolls and exaggerated groans. There will be a better chance of Frosty the Snowman coming to life in our front yard than him willingly shoveling the driveway.
Yet after a few inches of wet snow fell last Friday night, there he was: Arctic parka zipped up, boots pulled on and snow shovel in hand.
I didn’t even have to ask him. When he woke up and saw that perfect blanket of white on the ground, he was already making plans for the day ahead.
We’d build a snowman. We’d drop down and make snow angels. We’d have a snowball fight. In his mind, the day was full of possibilities. Granted, we only had about 1 1/2 inches of snow to work with. But that was all Anthony needed.
I promised him we would do all of those things. First things first, though: We needed to shovel the driveway. One of my greatest pet peeves is driving over show before getting a chance to shovel, leaving you with compacted, icy tracks that don’t seem to melt until spring.
The snowfall hadn’t been great, but it was wet and heavy. Still, Anthony gave it his best shot. As I went to work pushing piles on either side of the drive, he was scooping up the snow and trying to carry it over to the side. Sometimes, he made it, dumping a white pile in the yard.
More often, the heavy load was too much, and his hard work slid sideways back onto the concrete. We laughed.
In about 15 minutes, the job was done (even if my helper lost interest after a few shovelfuls of snow.) Then it was time to play, like I promised.
We had a massive snowball fight in the backyard, where Anthony stockpiled an arsenal of icy projectiles to hit me with. I got a few good shots in on him too — one arching snowball plopped right on his head, leaving us both rolling in the snow hysterically until he popped up and got his revenge.
Afterward, we built the snowman Anthony envisioned in the front yard, using discarded Christmas decorations for the eyes, garden stones as his buttons and a bright yellow bucket for a hat. We were pretty proud of our creation, until the snowman slowly started canting over on his side. More laughing ensued.
The snow didn’t last long; pretty much by the end of the day on Saturday, it was nearly melted. But we’ve been keeping our eyes on the forecast and following the next wave of storms headed towards central Indiana. With any luck, we’ll get a few more inches this weekend, leading to more winter-weather fun.
And if that happens, I know someone who will have his snow shovel ready — at least for one more year.
Ryan Trares is a senior reporter and columnist for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
