Vending in the snow

teeka and J were planning on going out to try and sell stuff on State Street today. Teeka had a migraine this morning, and it was really cold. She doesn't sell much stuff when it's really cold. J, on the other hand, sells hats, scarves, and gloves, and does reasonable business when it's cold. Teeka decided to stay home because while she could vend today with the migraine, she'd crash when she got home, and be unable to babysit for her sister, which is where she is now.

I loaded up the truck - shovels, ice chopper, and snowblower - so that I could drive down to State and see if J was trying to set up in the snow drifts that are the vending spots available. She wasn't when I got there, and there was enough ice and pushed-up snow piles that it wasn't going to be an easy job, so I ran an errand and came back, still no J, so I didn't clear any of the drifts because she probably wasn't coming out. Since I had everything in the truck, I drove over to J's house. She's not supposed to lift anything, so her sidewalk probably wasn't going to be clear as it was unlikely her son had volunteered to clear it off. I got there, chopped at some of the worse parts of the drift and ran the snowblower over it a couple times.

Then J's neighbors asked me how much I'd charge to do their driveway. I told then $20 (it was about 2 cars worth of driveway), but I'd need them to chop the lumps loose so I could get them with the snowblower. Mrs. neighbor didn't even hesitate - she just handed me money. All in all I worked on their driveway for about 45 minutes before I told them that I'd done all I could because of the ice ridges under everything. They thanked me and gave me a second $20 for my work.

I worked on J's sidewalk a little more after that and then put a couple pounds of icemelter on it. Right about then is when J came out of her house and discovered that I'd been there (I was behind the neighbor's RV when she came home, apparently). We, of course, never charge J anything, because she doesn't have the money, but she's still going to get Teeka something for Christmas to pay us back.

After that, I headed for Mounds for cat food and bird seed, and checked several other people's houses - L from work, ringsnake and snakewyfe's, and another of Teeka's friends - to see if they needed help (since I had the snowblower in the truck), but, alas, everyone had already cleaned up their sidewalks and what I could see of their driveways.

Came home, unloaded everything, and then went to Menards for two sheets of plywood and a half a dozen 2x4-8s. We're putting a second bench in Teeka's shop and insulating the ceiling, so the second sheet is to put some walking platforms down for when I'm crawling around the rafters. It's going to be a bit of a pain, as I'll need to borrow a taller ladder from work (9' truss deck level). We've got three rolls of kraft-faced fiberglass for 16" centers, so we've got enough insulation and don't need to buy any, but the garage ceiling is 24" truss centers.