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it finally started snowing late last night. i even saw a neighbor shoveling the sidewalk even though there really wasn't much accumulation yet.

i woke up at 10:00 this morning and immediately went outside to do some shoveling. there was a lot of activity on the street, as neighbors were out in full force, either shoveling their own piece of the sidewalk or digging out their car. there was about 10" of snow but it was the light powdery stuff which made it easy to clear. after the sidewalks i shoveled a walkway into the backyard. i figured once i was ready to go biking again, it'd make getting in and out of the basement much easier. finally i cleaned off the snow from the 3 floors of the backyard deck. i was only really concerned with my own floor, but i knew if my upstairs neighbor steve ever bothered to clear his deck, all that snow will eventually land on my floor, so better just to do it all. i finally finished by noontime.

i ended up walking to harvard square to take a bus into belmont. it was still snowing, and the precipitation wouldn't be over until later in the afternoon. for the most part the streets were pretty devoid of traffic. i saw people just walking out on the roads, which i thought was kind of dangerous (this coming from a guy who's been averaging a motorcycle accident every year). one of the good things about this dry snow is it doesn't stick to the front of the lens like wet snow would. photos come out looking like there's a lot of noise when it's actually just the snowflakes.

i caught the 73 bus into belmont. out in the suburbs people aren't as motivated to clear out the sidewalks like they are in the city. there were occasions where i had to trudge through nearly knee-deep snowdrifts on the sidewalk, and more than once i was forced to walk out onto the streets (though like i said, there was hardly any traffic).

hailey loves the snow. more precisely, she loves chasing after snowflakes and can spent hours just running around the backyard until she's frothing at the mouth and her tongue dangling out from exhaustion. my sister bought hailey a set of dog booties ($60) to protect her feet from the cold. it takes a long time to put them on, because she first has to put on the special paw socks. when hailey is wearing her shoes she hobbles around, but once outside, she forgets she's wearing them and behaves like normal. once she was back inside, she kept on whining to go back out again. turns out she needed to use the bathroom (the last time she was out she was so excited about the snow she forgot to go).

instead of the usual dinner, i had a late lunch with my family once my father came back home from the cafe (he closed early since there wasn't any customers on this snowy day). my father left in the early evening to help out with the chinese food delivery. an hour later (6:00) he came to pick me up so i could ride shotgun in the delivery vehicle.

this is probably the worst kind of weather if you're a delivery person. the roads are slippery with snow and nearly impossible to find parking since nobody wants to move their car and lose their spot. there's where i come in, acting as a backup in case we need to move the often-times illegally parked car. dinnertime is the peak time for delivery. after 8:00, when business started to drop off, my father gave me a ride back to my place. i noticed my upstairs neighbor was home; i wonder if he has anything to say about my wonderful shoveling work? before i went back inside, i shoveled the sidewalk a little bit more, removing about an inch or two of accumulation since this morning. later i sprinkled some salt to keep the ice from forming.

my roommate didn't go to work today. i turned up the heat before i left, just so he would be comfortable. at one point he might've left the house to go check out the snow. while i was out shoveling this morning he never volunteered to help. actually, i really don't see much of him. i get those roommates who have no notions of boundaries (e.g. pee goes inside the toilet, not on the floor), but then i get one like this guy, who's the exact opposite, who's so reclusive that it bothers me just as much. it's really something weird to have somebody live in my house that i almost never talk to or even see. i do hear him though, whenever he goes to the bathroom, because that's when he puts on a symphony of disgusting throat-clearing sounds. for a guy so private, he sure has no problem letting the world know of his issue with phlegm. i wonder what he would do if i went into the bathroom and did the same thing? maybe it'd finally break the ice because we'd have something in common. i didn't know you love clearing your throat as much as i do! best friends forever! finally, i think i sort of understand why he spoke only english to me the first few days that he lived here. i accidently overheard a skype conversation he was having with what i assume is his daughter, and they were speaking english. maybe he does this so she'll perform better in an english-speaking society, but take it from somebody with a bilingual background, kids have no problems keeping track of two different languages. when she gets older she'll regret not being able to speak chinese.

normally i get a pretty good sunday dinner, but tonight i just had some soup from a can.