Month: December 2012

Oh, The Driveway

This year, I am making a point to keep the lower half of the driveway very clear by shoveling any snowfall and sanding and salting. I have boxes of salt and sand placed along the driveway in three spots, to minimize the back-and-forth walking up and down the steep hill. I have also put my old Maxwell House blue plastic coffee canisters to work by using them as scoops. The older model canisters work better because the handle was separated from the body and not just indentations.

As the temperature grows colder, I am having a problem with my sand. Instead of nice granular sand – sand-sand – so to speak, I have large chunks of sand the shape of my boxes. The canisters do nothing to break-up them, and my gloved hands (and puny biceps) can’t punch through them. Thus, I’m left to dump the entire box on the driveway and stomp on it, then disperse some of the sand and rearrange the remaining chunks back in the box.

Short of keeping the sand at garage-temperature, is there a way to prevent it from bricking-up?

The salt is fine, but I try to use less of that than the sand. The other thing about the boxes of sand are that if you’re not careful, they can go shooting off like a self-propelled ground rocket. I was chasing one this morning.

Our Year in Cities 2012

During 2012, Lindsey and I spent at least one night in each of the cities listed below.

  • Traverse City, MI (Hometown)
  • Goulais River, ON, Canada (Ski Trip)
  • Orlando, FL (Spring Break)
  • Bloomfield Hills, MI (Mich. Am)
  • Washington, D.C. (Fall Break)
  • Ishpeming, MI (Thanksgiving)

It was a good year. A very good year. But I will summarize that in another post, later, when I’ve had more time to think about what we we’ve been up to the past 366 days. This was a leap year, after all.

A Weekend in the Office

I spent much of the weekend in the office watching a multi-hour webinar on Planning for the Taxable Estate. Around watching, and as an excuse to get up and stretch my legs, I thoroughly cleaned up the books and files around my office. The furniture stayed put.

I’ve always liked to use the end of the year to organize various parts of my life – both physical and digital. And as we near 1/1/2013, it’s time again to put away the 2012 stuff and make room for the new. Especially with our baby son coming oh-so-soon, I am guessing that I will have to be more efficient than ever at keeping my stuff in order because his stuff will soon displace my stuff in the hierarchy of which stuff I most care about!

The week ahead is going to continue to be busy, as we have three Christmas parties to attend – MFDA, RJFH, and CRB. It will be fun, and I am looking forward to a healthy dose of Christmas cheer to go with the fresh blanket of snow covering the white Christmas lights lining our fence.

The snow also marks the true start of winter, and my 6am-obligation to keep the steep and curving parts of the driveway safe for passing. It’s not all bad, as it’s forced near-daily exercise.

Have a tremendous week, and don’t be too busy to enjoy a Christmas song from time to time.

Everything is an Adventure

Here begins my collection of parenting snippets from other people, sources, etc. I won’t call them tips or advice. That’s too constraining.

My dad used to say everything was an “adventure.” He’d be going to the grocery store, for example, and he’d ask us, “Want to go on an adventure?” We pile into the car, excited to try some cheese samples and listen to the radio while driving. That one word made everything feel thrilling.

From A CUP OF JO.