It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood....

Won't you be my neighbor??

Well, I had a nice Thanksgiving. I went to my principal's house where about 20 of us had our dinner. It was a fun time. The day before, we got out of school early and came down to the cafeteria where we served a Thanksgiving meal to the community. I was passing out the turkey. I don't know how many people came, but it had to be at least half of the village was there.

But the real fun was this morning. (Don't ask me why this was the fun part....I don't know, it just was!) I layered up and grabbed my outdoor broom to sweep off the snow on my porch, steps, & boardwalk. I don't have a shovel, so this was the best I could do.

The rain had iced up the snow, so it was mostly ice. By the way, brooms don't work so well on ice. But kicking seems to work. So I was kicking the ice off, listening to music, and pretty much having a good ole time. I know I was making a lot of noise, but it was after noon so I wasn't too worried about it.

After a few minutes, a neighbor in my complex comes out and starts shoveling her walk. Another one comes and then soon my principal's out there, and they're clearing off the boardwalk (I don't know if it was just coincidence or if I was making a huge racket). The ones with shovels (i.e. everyone but me) had helped me with my steps and boardwalk and had moved on to everyone else's boardwalk & steps.

The mood was light and jovial. But as I only had a broom, I wasn't much help. So I did what one does with a broom in the snow. I went to go smack icicles off my roof. I had already karate chopped the ones I could reach earlier. Brandishing my broom like the graceful samurai sword it should have been, I start at the icicles on the other side of my house, when I noticed an odd handle coming out from under the house. It was a shovel!! Now I could help shovel snow!!

I ran up to the group with a triumphant "Look what I found!!!" And soon there were four of us, clearing snow & breaking up the ice. I know it's supposed to be work, but after trying to shovel snow with a broom and your feet....a shovel is a lot better. Plus, adding sound effects always makes a job more fun. I was still in the martial art mindset so my sound effects shoveling were of that nature.

It was the reading specialist, the principal, the 3rd grade teacher and myself out there. We were cracking jokes & laughing. We cleared the whole boardwalk and everyone's steps. At one point the principal's wife came out with a camera to take a picture of all of us. At another point, the 3rd grade teacher hit me in the arm with a snowball. I am quite happy to report that I have pretty good aim and pegged him in the leg. He's lucky he went back into his house, otherwise it would have been war!!! (I'm not sure if he reads my blog, so I might need to declare war or at least threaten war in person....)

I stayed out a bit longer and practiced throwing snowballs. I haven't attempted a snowman yet, but the snow isn't that sticky yet. But it was fun stomping around and being silly.

I have knocked down all the icicles around my house and now I'm wondering if other people would notice if I did their houses next. I'm not sure what the appeal is but whatever, I'm just going with it.