Summer Garage

It’s that time of year again. I can finally be relatively confident that I won’t wake up in the morning to find it snowed a foot. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but the likelihood is pretty low. At this point, I don’t live with the fear that if I park the car outside overnight, I’ll have to scrape a thick rind of ice off the car in the morning. I probably won’t be shoveling snow any more. I won’t need the snow thrower again for several months.

This is when I decide it’s time to convert from ‘winter garage’ to ‘summer garage.’

Winter garage is the state in which the garage is cleared out to make room for two cars. This saves us the great hassle of scraping frost every morning. Since it tends to snow nearly every day in the winters around here, keeping the cars in the garage means less shoving snow off the cars in the mornings. Cars in the garage also means that clearing the driveway of snow is just a tiny bit easier.

Alas, winter garage means that all heavy manufacturing projects or repairs can no longer take place. It also means that all my summer equipment has to be put away. It’s sensible to put bicycles away, and the lawn mower, they won’t be used. But some things I just miss.

Happily, today was the day we returned to summer garage. The cars are back in the driveway. The oil on the floor is sopped up with cat litter. The winter’s dirt is swept out. All the trash that’s been piling up on the work bench is finally thrown away.

Then comes out the summer gear. I’ve been planning to make myself some new armor for SCA heavy weapons. Since I wrote this post, I’ve gotten a few new ideas. But all my gear’s been put away.

I’ve got all the necessary gear out again. I’m ready to go!

Summer garage also means that I have a place to put my pell for sword practice. It takes up too much space to be out during the winter, but stores nicely in the garage when the cars are out.

Pulling out the pell means bringing out the practice swords, too.

It seems that this year, all my squires will be chickens.

I’m glad, and relieved, that it seems that the worst of winter is over. I’ll finally have time and space to make the new armor I’m envisioning. I’ll be able to practice my sword skills outside, where there’s room to properly swing a weapon, and a pell to strike if that’s necessary.

I can’t wait!