> Shoveling out from this snowstorm is a reminder how out of shape I am.

How bad?  Here, it was maybe 6 inches of powder.

wrote:

How bad?  Here, it was maybe 6 inches of powder.

About 10 inches of powder and another 3 inches of sleet.  No too bad.  All the stores ran out of ice-melt bags over two weeks ago.  So many mild winters in a row, the stores stopped stocking large quantities of the stuff.  So I am using play sand right now as a substitute.

Just made a pound of bacon in the oven, it’s already gone per house vultures, put another pound in the oven.
Smithfield Cherrywood 
2 day old crockpot of beef stew slow cooked for 10 hrs with all the good stuff.
Woodstove insert in brick fireplace cranking heat, humongous pile of firewood on the porch, burning 24/7

Cats mad as shyt about the outside conditions, but sedated and helpless in front of the woodstove on the leather rug.
Dog freaked the fuq out, has to walk on top of slippery ice crust, can’t poke through & doesn’t want to.
A promising southern magnolia volunteer seedling @ 3 years old is flat on the ground weighed down by ice crust. All the store-bought $$$ southern magnolias looking fine for now but still partial to my free bootstrapy one. A nice volunteer eastern red cedar looking like a fuqing Chinese weeping willow, hope it bounces back.
A newly roofed second floor balcony in full sun is miraculously dripping & melting despite the cold, but I’m not going up there because so much bacon. Going to freeze hard again when that sweet south sun passes. 
Humongous diesel generator with stand-by auto switch ready to go, hasn’t kicked off.
Backhoe ready fueled up with keys in it to tackle any humongous loblolly pines or oaks or gum trees that fall across the road. Don’t know/ don’t care if any fallen trees in the roads yet, because bacon + woodstove + cats.

Second pound of bacon extra crispy & ready because fuq “20 minutes”, needs 30 or more for the crunch. Hot oven still hot, time to toss in some king size baked potatoes in the hot oven, see a baked potato bar dinner coming with lots of toppings = cheese, sour cream, bacon, and Irish butter. Vegetables? No. A few carrots still in the beef stew and not the gay fake “mini carrots” sold to tick tockers.

Not much for dessert cuz fuq sugar, did load op on big-box size CLIF bars in peanut butter because some survival food is delicious.

Done