Snow. It's been kind of a unifying theme out here for the past month. There's been a new snowstorm with up to 33 inches of the stuff every week, which has done wonders for the scheduling of anything in these parts because we've been alternating between "blizzard" and "holiday."

It's been tough keeping up with it, but I've been trying to clear off at least a few spots and stripes on the driveway, enough so the sun can reach the blacktop and let that whole "solar energy" thing start to work its magic on the intervening stripes of snow. That's my theory anyway. I figure it's only fair to let the sun do most of the work because it's bigger than I am.

For a lot of people, it could have been worse. Since the actual holidays and weekends have been the times when it wasn't blizzarding, at least it was possible to do all the usual family and holiday stuff.

Business and deliveries stuff, not-so-much. It was a little rougher for people who have to get in all sorts of video and audio elements and ship out master tapes and DVDs (me) or who were expecting a torrent of incoming holiday gifts (not me). What I did notice is that the one-two combination of holidays and snowstorms really slowed down the issuing and the delivering of bills and invoices...but did not exert a similar effect on their respective due dates. So I did get a torrent of incoming bills and invoices that needed to be paid on or within a day of their arrival.

But nothing says, "Happy New Year!" like a little frenetic accounting, right?

Another entertaining game to play out here this holiday season is "find the mailbox." I'm beginning to think that the snowplows must have some grossly unfair advantage because they've been able to find it every time.

I, on the other hand, sometimes spend an hour trying to locate it, especially when it's been pushed partway down the hillside and then concealed under a twenty-foot long, five-foot deep wall of snow.

Even my trusty beepful friend, the Radio Shack metal detector I bought for $2.50 at a garage sale, was often unable to find hide or hinge of it. Usually I just started digging at one end of the snowy rampart and, just before I'd reach the other end, *ping*, there would be the mailbox.

I don't know why, but for some reason a concrete pillar feels heavier when you're trying to pull it out of a snowbank.

I still haven't found the concrete base that the mailbox pillar is supposed to stand upon, so the mailbox just keeps moving to wherever I managed to dig down to a flat area. You'd think that by moving the mailbox each time it would be harder for the snowplows to find it, but somehow they manage, every time. Can't fault 'em for enjoying this game...considering that they always manage to win it. Still, I can't help but wonder what their secret is.