Recently,
I’ve been noticing my snow fence quite a bit.
It’s
off to the side of the house, or more precisely to the side of
the driveway. Been using it for about eight years now. Goes up
at some point before November starts and usually comes down in
April. Dates slide slightly, but you can’t wait until the ground
is too hard to pound in the posts, nor break it down too early
when plenty of good snowstorms arrive around these parts after
spring has begun.
The
fence itself is some fifty-feet long and four-feet high. Walk
outside to the cars, and it’s almost impossible to not see it.
Which is what brings me back to my original observation.
Recently,
I’ve been noticing my snow fence quite a bit.
This
isn’t about the fence though. It’s about the fence being there.
The winter this year was ridiculously mild. That, in turn, has
meant that for a few weeks, when I leave the house for whatever
reason, I spot the fence and start thinking about taking it down.
This, in turn, leads to telling myself it’s still too early to
do it, and that spins off to the fence being the first thing to
do on a fairly long list of things to do once the weather settles
into the phase of definitely getting a bit warmer every day.
Funny
thing about the seasons. Every year, I become more convinced that
the seasons warp time and distort observations. Consider that
same snow fence…
Let’s
say it gets put in place around October 20th. Then, I break it
down on April 10th. November, December, January, February and
March. That’s five months. Good chunk from two more. Not a stretch
to say that it’s in place for a really solid part of the year.
Almost half. (Even just the November thru March part is more than
forty percent of the year.) Doesn’t seem like it’s out that much.
Doesn’t seem close.
But
then there’s the months involved. Late autumn, winter and early
spring. Colder, some rain, and more years than not, a lot of snow
and frozen mixes. The best stay inside with some hot cocoa days.
Shifting sunrise and sunset means a lot less daylight days. Not
a ton of spend lots of time outdoors days.
It
never feels like the snow fence is out and in place for that significant
an amount of time. Sure seems like a lot less. Warped and distorted
time.
There
are truck owners out there that understand the observation I’m
making. Not because of the snow fence idea, but rather because
they add a snowplow blade around the same time I’m pounding posts
into the ground, and take it off about the same time I’m pulling
them up.
Pool
owners. Where are our pool owners? Roughly Memorial Day to Labor
Day. Three months of use, but they’re glorious months, am I right?
(That’s a bit of sarcasm there, as I know plenty of pool owners
that not only shake their heads when considering the pool never
gets used nearly as much as they expected, but add a big sigh
to that head shake after cleaning it for three months. They actually
prefer seeing it covered.)
What
types of funny things do you take for granted? You walk outside,
and something has been in place long enough that you don’t even
notice it’s there anymore. It’s just a piece of a larger collage,
with common elements positioned in just the right pattern so that
you simply don’t notice the trees in the overall forest.
But
there’s that fence off to the side. It sits alone in that part
of the yard, with nothing nearby. There’s a stretch of sunny days
coming up, and I’m debating putting it away. And I just might,
except once I do I’ll need to take some stuff out of the shed
to make room for it. Lawn mower, deck chairs, and, well, it’s
going to be a busy spring.
I’ve
come to believe that the snow fence is a better gauge than groundhogs
when it comes to deciding winter is over. And once that happens,
the wave of work from the to do list begins.