Fade To White

Happy Valentine’s Day. We need the warm embrace of love on these dreadfully cold days. Whether that be the love of a fellow human being, or even just taking a moment of self love, because dammit that’s important too.

We need more love. Less hate. And I could do with a bit less snow too.

I’m going to blame the snow for screwing up my Valentine’s Day plans. Or maybe I should blame God. At least today’s rant isn’t going to be political. I can’t even tie in the current weather to concerns about shifting climate norms.

Certainly, on one hand, it’s great to gaze out the window and have it finally look like February in the Capital Region. Well, maybe it looks more like late January. The snow isn’t quite dirty enough to look like February. But the mass of the piles is certainly there.

And at least Little Miss Fussy is happy. Young Master Fussy? Well, that’s another story.

First things first. That first big snow? Glorious. Loved it. And I shoveled it out like a boss. I even shoveled a little bus stop for Lilttle Miss Fussy across the street, so that the two of us wouldn’t have to stand in the middle of the road waiting for the schoolbus to pick her up.

The follow up snow? I gotta say it’s less exciting to trudge back out and do it all over again. Not that I minded all that much. But what I came to realize is that shoveling two days in a row didn’t quite give my muscles enough time to recover. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice at the time.

Do you know when I did notice?

When I was bending over the chest freezer and sorting through the various bags of frozen vegetables, meats, fruits, chicken bones, and the like. Because that’s when something went “pop” in my back.

Ouch.

The good news is that I can still walk. I can even drive. But it hurts. And if I make a wrong move, I might injure it worse and end up on the floor. So I’m taking it easy. That means Advil, stretching, hot baths, and hot pads.

Young Master Fussy is taking it easy too, but for a different reason. He has come down with some kind of fever. It kept him out of school yesterday. It’s keeping him home today. I’ve also backslid a bit, with my congestion picking up and which this time around has a bonus feature of a cough. Let me tell you, having a cough with back spasms is a special kind of treat.

At least Little Miss Fussy and I both had great check ups at the dentist yesterday. Two sets of teeth. Zero cavities. Even though neither of us brushes the FOUR times a day that our dentist is currently recommending. He used to say “three times a day” which always seemed like a stretch. But four? Who brushes their teeth four times a day? Nobody, that’s who.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so snarky. Because when I got in the car after the dentist, it made a weird sound. And now it doesn’t seem to be working quite right.

Which means, on top of it all, it looks like I’m going to have to find some way to get to the mechanic. With one sick kid. A bad back. A cough. And it being Valentine’s Day.

At the very least, I’m thankful that Mrs. Fussy and I didn’t make any kind of fancy dinner reservations for tonight. Those would have been a bummer to cancel. But given the circumstances, it will be a challenge to make even our modest plan work out. That was to pick up lobsters and a bottle of sparkling wine, to enjoy after the kids put themselves to sleep.

Fortunately, I married the right woman.

If worst comes to worst, she told me she’d be fine just sitting in a corner on the floor drinking bourbon. And hopefully, it’s not going to come to that. But it very very well may come exactly to that.

At least we’ll be warm. And very much in love. Even though I may also be very much in pain.