Snow. Snow. Snow.

Syracuse – Last week at this time, I was lying in a hospital bed, doped up on morphine and barely able to stand up.
Today, I was shoveling snow.
It’s amazing what the human body can endure. Granted, I’m not supposed to exercise or lift anything over 10 pounds for the next couple of weeks, while my body recovers from losing a kidney. And I was reminded of my “condition” today on two occasions: first, when my abdomen turned very grumpy after I tried to dig my car out a mountain of snow; and second, when I went to climb into a hot bubble bath and suddenly remembered that soaking in water is a no-no for a month after surgery. Apparently, it’s not good for the incision.
Humph.
This is not a good time to be debilitated in Syracuse. We’re getting PUMMELED with snow (two to three feet). It started falling last night and hasn’t stopped. It’s lovely, of course, as long as 1) your heater works properly and 2) you don’t have to leave the house.
On a related note:
For those who’d like a little more winter in their lives, there’s a new exhibit called “Embracing Winter” at Syracuse University’s Warehouse Gallery in downtown. I stopped by to see it yesterday, the day it opened.
I got a kick out of the press release. Here’s what it says: “Syracuse is the perennial winner of the Golden Snowball Award, for the most snowfall in New York State. “Embracing Winter” celebrates this crystallized precipitation as the key to a delightful set of activities, and as an ephemeral filter to make ordinary surroundings new again.”
I suppose delightful activities would include shoveling snow, because one piece features a row of snow shovels purchased at local stores.
This installation was inspired by the early 20th century Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, a pioneer of using everyday objects as art (think bicycle wheels, urinals, drying racks). His 1915 piece, “In Advance of the Broken Arm,” was a snow shovel.
In the Syracuse exhibit, you’re invited to rent a shovel for two days. How goofy, I thought. But as it turns out, I might be stopping by tomorrow to do just that.
This morning, once I finally exhumed my car (with a neighbor’s help), I drove off, and I believe I left my house’s communal shovel stuck in a snow mound. It has since disappeared.
The “Embracing Winter” exhibit runs through March 31. Visit www.thewarehousegallery.org. -- JM