Shoveling ‘snowcrete’ off a sidewalk with a satirist

Happy Friday, DMV! It’s Feb. 13.

My regular readers know that the “snowcrete” covering the sidewalks in my neighborhood has been one of my gripes in the aftermath of the Jan. 25 snow-sleet storm.

I’m relatively fit, and for the past few weeks, I’ve pretended that I’m Super Mario on treacherous icy terrain. However, the ice-encrusted snow is not great for kids and impossible for people in wheelchairs or people with mobility issues. I’ve seen far fewer people with disabilities and elderly lately. Pedestrians often jump off icy parts to walk on roads that have been clear for weeks.

So yesterday, this guy, Eric Saul, posted in our neighborhood Facebook group an offer: “Who still needs help shoveling their sidewalk? Send me your address, and I'll try to get to it in the next day or two (also an open invite for anyone who wants to help).”

Eric is an architect and runs the Takoma Torch, a satirical news site that is essentially the Onion of Takoma Park, Maryland. He does some funny stuff. He also upsets some people, but such is the goal of a satirist. Anyway, I’ve long wanted to meet him.

I dropped him a line, telling him I wanted help clearing a stretch of sidewalk in town, but I had a small caveat: “I'm quite petite & not very practiced in shoveling snow. That said, if you have a metal tool of some sort, I could help chip away & try!”

I have spare time on my hands. I relish a challenge and extra exercise. Why not?

We met up. I played the icebreaker, Eric was shoveler. Some stretches — including curb ramps at pedestrian crossings and bus stops — were completely covered. Others had a sliver of a path cleared — far too narrow for a wheelchair. We spent an hour yesterday afternoon toiling away and chatting. A neighbor, who had let Eric park in her driveway, joined us.

By the end, I was drenched in sweat. When I got home, I sat at my computer to work on this newsletter and respond to reader emails, but my hands were like Jell-O and my fingers couldn’t type. So I took a hot bath. My hands had swollen from the icebreaking. My finger was bruised by a ring. (“Pro” tip: Take off your rings before shoveling snow.)

We cleared and widened a path along a 0.4-mile stretch of sidewalk. We chatted. And we had fun — really. Or at least I did.

I’m landing in your inbox earlier than usual today because there’s a NASA-SpaceX rocket launch scheduled for 5:15 a.m., and it could be visible along the East Coast from Florida to Maine. The rocket, taking off from Cape Canaveral, will carry four astronauts to the International Space Station.

My husband, who likes to keep track of rocket launches, told me about this yesterday afternoon, so I wanted to let you know in case you want to wake up to try to see the rocket.

A few years ago, when a rocket launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, my family and I saw it from our front yard as it passed through the sky to the east of our home.

We have our alarms set early. 🥱

Dan Woolley, 71, of Herndon, Virginia, sent in these pics from a recent stroll in Frying Pan Farm Park.

“I finally ventured out with my Nordic walking sticks and pulled off the rubber feet to expose the steel tips as the sharp points would be needed on the ice and crusty frozen ground,” he said.

“I have a favorite bench that sits under a big tree where I often sit, but it looked so forlorn in the ice now awaiting spring.

“I was also fascinated by sheets of ice sliding down the barn roof, creating a new platform for icicles.

“To top off my walk a beautiful Fox came by hunting for dinner,” Dan wrote to me.

“My usual 15-minute mile pace slowed to close to 40 minutes a mile, but the quiet, bright sun, the crunch of the ice and winter solitude were so needed after days of digging out.”

A few things to note before I sign off …

Tomorrow — 💕 Valentine’s Day 💕 — the sun rises at 7 a.m., then sunrise ticks back into the 6 o’clock hour.

And Monday is Presidents Day. Enjoy the long weekend, and see you in your inbox Tuesday.

🦊