Crushed Grapes and Icicle Washday

The blizzard that had shut down the highways had blown through like a lion, during the night. And now, the sun was shining brightly as Simmy looked out the window.
Huge snow piles grinned their toothy snarled evidence of storm leavings. There was very little movement at all outside. It was a day off of school for most kids and it seemed many parents were taking a day off of work to accommodate that.
The lack of activity outside was probably what made that white sheet billowing in the winter crisp air stand out so prominently. In between the stuccoed houses and varying roof lines that one white flag surrender seemed ironic. It was symbolic of how Canadians feel after months of snow, snow, and more snow... and then a mid-February blizzard.
Just two days ago the sparrows had been frolicking in the bare branches, promising a chatty, energetic spring.
Simmy grabbed the laundry basket and headed outside.
"If my mother could hang cloth diapers in the winter, I can hang my tea towels."
She paused when she saw the icicles hanging off the shed roof...

"Pttth," she formed her now famous raspberry. "I'm Canadian, you don't scare me."
She plopped the laundry basket down on the path that Sam had cut with the winter scoop an hour earlier.

The bright sunshine just promised so much more than this dump of snow. As Simmy looked at the tea towel with that big cluster of grapes on it... she cheerfully breathed in the fresh air... crushed grapes make great wine... not sour grapes, just crushed ones.
"And yes, Aesop, it may seem irrational to hang laundry in the snow,... but we're creating our own fable until the sparrows reappear!"