For the record: last Saturday, 177 days after the moving van came and went, while the temperature hovered around -5°F, we finally cleared a big enough space in the garage to fit a car into.

Fortunately, before achieving this milestone, we had only needed to clear snow and ice off of the car three or four times while it was parked in the alley.

I’m sure our across-the-alley neighbors are breathing a sigh of relief as they no longer have to maneuver with care not to hit our car on their way out.

And the extension cord for the plug-in hybrid Ford C-MAX is no longer crimped beneath the garage door. This is an improvement.

We have now formed the habit of taking one box each into the house every time we return from somewhere and garage the car. At this rate we should have the boxes cleared in, let’s see, less than a month.