Some how we survived WINTER STORM 2007! (Honest, the media dubbed it that in all the news casts, which made me sad, I thought my ICE STORM 2007 sounded a little more dramatic.) Fortunately, our rations held out and we didn’t have to dip into the cat food after being trapped in the house for 2 ½ whole days.

The only dicey situation involved the ice on our walkway. Jay called from work (yes, he valiantly braved the storm) and asked if I would clear out some of the ice he’d knocked off his car. Out I went, shuffling along our ice patch to make it to the drive. We don’t own a shovel (who knew those would be handy) so I took up the kicking/stubbing my toes method of knocking the ice chunks into the yard. But there was still the problem with the walkway leading to our door. (I learned it was on a slight angle after drifting several times towards our yard.)

I recalled my grandmother standing on her own porch shaking salt rock on the steps. I didn’t quite understand the chemical reaction going on back then (magic), but she explained that it would make the ice melt. Well, I live in Central Texas and we don’t have a need for salt rock, but I figured salt rock is just chunkier salt.

Not certain that this was “right” thinking I got online and hunted down a Canadian and a South Dakotan. “Hey, if I grab some salt and shake it on my sidewalk would that work?” You could feel the jaws drop across the state/country lines. Finally, the Canadian came back “I suppose… if you had a LOT of salt.” Oh, I had a lot of salt. I had the big thing of Morton’s and a hankering to shake.

I ran outside container in hand, popped open the spigot and thoroughly seasoned my sidewalk. The only positive thing I can say was at least I had the good sense to duck when my neighbors from Michigan pulled up. I’m not convinced I was fast enough, so I’m sure they went inside appalled that I had just dumped salt all over my walkway. (As you know, sidewalks go better with a pinch of tarragon and basil.)

When Jay came home I was sitting in the computer room quite proud. “How was the sidewalk when you came in?” “Umm…icy?” Clearly, I’m going to need more salt for the next “storm”.