It was cold yesterday, the day of the great Snow Bob build.  I’d spent the previous morning build a practice squirrel in my backyard… with mixed results.  The biggest factor was the snow.  There was plenty of it, it was just all wrong for building.  Skiing?  sure. Squirrels?  Not so much.

I wasn’t totally prepared, protection wise for this build.  I was wearing three layers of clothing all over, and yet water and cold still found their way to my skin.  It really was cold.  It was reeealy cold.

In the end, the design of the sculpture had to change.  The material we were dealing with was completely uncooperative, no matter what we did.  I fashioned some semblance of a figure… in order to have something in place to go back to when the conditions very slightly more favorable.

Even though I was stopped by factors beyond my control, I still felt as though this was a failure.

Of course, I will go back and finish this.  But, walking away with cold, sore muscles didn’t hurt me as much as not finishing.  Even worse:  not finishing it the way I had originally intended.

But there is the lesson.  Sometimes you have to improvise on the fly.  Sometimes you have to switch gears and take a direction not on the map.  Sometimes, you can’t feel your hands and feet… whatever the sometimes is, you finish what you start.

I’d like to thank the core group of awesome people who came to help.  Kathy Perry, The City of Rome for access to facilities, Lori Colasanti Frieden, Sheila Feldman, Mike Colangelo, Sr., The Libertellas, Mayor Fusco and his wife, my wife Lezley, my daughter Lauren and all her friends.

I’ll get this squirrel done before spring.  But before that, I’ll get myself some snowpants.