The scrape and heft of someone shoveling snow always makes me think of masturbation. It’s a strange Pavlovian response, I know. But ever since I read this guy Nick’s story about a character who finds himself masturbating whenever his neighbor is out shoveling snow, I can’t get the image out of my head. I read this story sometime in like 2004 (I think). I didn’t like the story at the time, and yet that image of the masturbator watching the snow shoveler from the window still haunts me. If I could remember Nick’s last name I would Google him up and tell him about the wonder of that image he created.

Sister #4 is outside shoveling snow. She has some guilt about parking in my driveway and how it probably won’t get plowed because of that. So she’s shoveling snow and I’m in here thinking about the masturbation story and isn’t that just a lovely Christmas Eve eve image for you all?

She arrived here last night ahead of Snowmageddon and has kind of thrown my schedule out of whack. But we’re getting along and that’s a good thing, right? I suspect by Sunday morning I’ll be shoving her out the door. Five days in a row of someone all up in my business is quite a lot for a hermit to take. But I can do it, right? Of course I can. I hope.