Shoveling, shoveling, shoveling, shoveling...and shoveling

We have two days (IN A ROW!) predicted to be above freezing and sunny, and I realized I'd better get what I can out of the driveway - both to prevent it melting and refreezing overnight, and to give the sun some nice dark pavement to heat and melt away some of what is seriously frozen in place.  I don't teach on Thursdays, so I stayed home this morning to work on it.

I went out at 8 am - that's roughly the time the sun is over the hill and it feels a little warmer to be outside.  Aubrey came out to help, but she really kind of sucks at snow removal.  Let me tell you, I REALLY should not have neglected it last time it snowed.  I had about a two-inch thick compressed layer of snow (from driving over it) with some loose snow on top and some patches of serious ice, and it was sort of like breaking up cement.  (Not as hard, obviously, but it was breaking into huge solid chunks instead of shoveling like nice new snow does, and I was really having to work to get the shovel pried under the edge - it was stuck pretty good to the cement, but then would finally pop up as a solid chunk.)  Many of the pieces were big enough that I had to stop and pick them up without the shovel - and they were pretty heavy!  (Not unmanageable, but a far cry from toss-able.)  And I worked!  And when I first started feeling a little tired of it, I turned and looked at my progress...

and I had cleared roughly a 10x10 area.  :(

I shoveled for a little over an hour, and got roughly half the driveway done.

Then I checked the weather - and we have snow predicted on Saturday and Monday.

(It still needed done, though - if this refreezes after melting entirely I'll never get it up!)