While it IS good to avoid tripping hazards like the snow pusher, but I disagree with lots of night lighting...only teaches you to rely on vision, which is the main cause of disorientation. It's good to challenge your vestib system by walking in low light or dark situations, as long as you know there's nothing along your planned route to trip you. I chose to live on the Oregon coast (after living in the valley) because there's almost never any snow in the valley and snow here on the coast is a light sprinkle of white greeted with amazement when it happens once every few years. If I want to see snow, Mt. Hood is only an hour east of Portland...three hours from here, which is far better. <g> Wednesdays are my serious exercise days. I drive two hours each way to load 400-550 loaves of bread donated by Dave's Killer Bread to our local Backpacks for Kids program. That means lifting around 800 pounds several times (from trays to totes, totes into van, stacking totes in van)...and then doing the process in reverse when I get back to the pantry to unload. All the fresh bread is packed into our line of upright freezers, and frozen bread delivered to places than can distribute it around town. Just that's enough of a workout, but our driveway's been partially washed out for over three weeks, so I had to haul all the $200 worth of groceries I bought across the slick muddy stretch over the creek culvert and up the hill to the house, which is a distance from the road. By then, it had been more than 12 hours since I'd left early in the morning, and I was so tired that one of the loads on the handtruck slipped off sideways into the mud. Ugh! I didn't start volunteering for this grief to make my bones stronger, but after over six years, I can fall without breaking anything. Lifting is excellent for strengthening bones! Still, I note that every winter the distance from where I park beside the road and the house seems to get longer and steeper. <g>