help for the older persons

some days are down days for me so thursday when we had a snow day i sort of collapsed into nothingness. my sis had a great burst of energy: worked on sewing project, painted a picture, and i don't know what else--she was busy. friday was another snow day. some people were returning to work, but there was no school. sis had a party planned for some of our after school kids, but that was canceled. she went out to tackle shoveling the driveway. i was inside cleaning out the fridge. i asked if she could take out the garbage sacks when they were full since she had volunteered to do it the day before. well, it was a bit much to ask just after she had worked on the driveway. she was really mad at me. BuT, we were saved by the arrival of her grand-kids and her son. he took one look at the driveway and the ice on the sidewalk and went home to get his little front loader that he, his brother, and their dad had bought. there was probably a 4 foot drift all across our driveway and the snow was really wet. in fact, if you look at the snow picture you can see a blue air pocket. my nephew said it is because the wet air is so cold that it turns blue. not quite sure how that works. after the driveway was cleared, he and his dad finished our little water diversion project so that the water from the roof does not drain onto the sidewalk. the ice that formed every snow storm was pretty dangerous. formerly the water that was coming down the gutter was too much to go unde the sidewalk as planned and it would spout up at the connection at the sidewalk and spill out and then freeze. we have a couple of cracks in the sidewalk that have to be mended. so we rerouted the gutter over the sidewalk. next spring we will plant a vine to grow up over the gutter. it should make a pretty entrance to our little house.