My back is killing me

After working on my Mom’s taxes I started putzing around with my snow sculpture. I had already heaped a couple mounds of snow which should have been a lot more work than trimming the heaps today. You wouldn’t know it if you could feel my back. Five hours of chopping hard snow off of those heaps took a toll. Such work has had a similar effect for years but at age sixty after abandoning regular exercise to fight the Red Plan I’m a bit of a cream puff.

I had stopped working on the sculpture about three weeks ago making use of a heat wave to pile snow onto the two heaps. The taller one was still too short so I had to mix water and snow this morning to pile it up higher. To do this I cooked the snow. First I gathered up a couple cubic yards of fresh snow from my backyard and brought it next to the sculpture. Next I poured twenty or thirty gallons of water on the pile then I shoveled more fresh snow on top to insulate the stew and let the water diffuse. I ignored this for about four hours and went to work chopping snow off other sections of the sculpture.

At about 3PM I scrapped off the insulating snow and then shoveled out the sticky snow and began adding it to the tallest pile. When I finished the tallest pile was still too short and in need of bulking up.

I could tell this because I had sculpted a small version of my planned sculpture out of modelling clay. Holding the modeling clay close to my face in front of the heaps of snow there was a mismatch. I’ll have to cook some more snow tomorrow and bulk it up some more. I’ll start the day with a couple of advils.

When I limped inside Claudia asked me if I was done. I told her it would take me at least another day to finish. That’s if I’m lucky. I hope there are no change orders. My back couldn’t take it.

About the author

Harry is a ferociously good natured eccentric in Duluth Minnesota who detests traitors dressed up as Uncle Sam. You can find somewhat better edited writings of his at the Duluth Reader "contributors." page. The URL is:

https://duluthreader.com/contributors/h/84/284-harry-welty