I’m talking little Disney-style hands with gloves & shovels extending out of the sidewalk though.
I attemped to walk my 15 pound dog the other day. There was only one sidewalk that had not been shoveled.
What a shock; my son found out via Facebook that the owner of the house in question died two days ago. I guess he gets a pass and he is only 39 and no, I don’t know what the hell happened. Jaysus.
“Oh, you’re dead? FUCK YOU, shovel your sidewalk!”
He probably had a heart attack from shoveling his sidewalk.
This is why I could never own property in the city/suburbs. I barely leave the room my computer is in unless I have to sleep, pee, or walk to my car. Unless it was a day I actually had to leave my apartment, it is unlikely I’d even know it had snowed, let alone that some arbitrary piece of concrete I’ve never used out front is in need of shoveling. On Wednesday morning I opened my door, discovered about 2 feet of snow, and promptly took the day off work. By Thursday morning the crews employed by the apartment complex had taken care of it.
It’s your outside, fuck you. You shovel it! 
Thus spoke Zarathustra.
Could be, he used to walk his dogs and always had a ciggie-butt in his hand and he really inhaled. Nice guy though, very sad situation. His wife and daughter are nice, too.
This thread makes me think of one particular scene from Goodfellas. Needless to say NSFW!.
Hahaha…you funny SFG! I’m holding on to my sides from laughing at your wit here!
Actually, it feels pretty okay given that’s its all kinda moot here, as I pointed out. “Injury and death”??? I’ve lived in this snowy area all my life and most, if not all of the deaths are due to people like me having heart attacks while shoveling - not from someone falling down in a pile of soft snow. Because here’s the thing - shoveling gets rid of the snow, not the ice under it! But wait - I guess we’re supposed to salt and/or chip away the ice too, right? Because that’s what everybody does! I slipped on the ice in a (plowed) parking lot a few years ago and broke my shoulder. Did I sue the lot owner - hell, no! I chalked it up to living in fucking Ohio and sometimes shit happens!
The only thing snow does is make you walk a little more carefully, which I’m thinking is probably a good idea - therefore, less likely to fall! And if you do fall, well yeah you might get bruised a bit, but you’re right - I’m totally willing to risk that minor injury, not to mention the ‘inconvenience’, to you as opposed to risking death for myself! I am completely selfish that way, and I am also selfish enough to feel no shame about it. If you are going to live in Ohio, then you better damn well know how to get about in the snow. If you don’t, then stay the fuck home!
As to the rest of your post? :eek: Well, you certainly have a gift for illogical extrapolation. Bless your tiny little heart…
Yeah, those are like what I remember from my time in Montreal.
Wow! Calgary doesn’t do snow removal? To me, that’s just odd. We (Ottawa), have an entire roads department that in winter focuses on getting the white stuff out of the way. They plow roads and sidewalks, and once the snowbanks at the side of the road get big enough, they remove them as well.
This year hasn’t been too bad, but two years ago, we got dumped on so much that at one point, I was walking home along nine foot high snowbanks. The sad thing about that is it was “garbage night”, and snow removal operations were in effect. I got to listen as the monster snowblowers churned through the snow, and all the stuff placed out for collection on top of it. Fun times.
I think you’re kind of overestimating the risk of heart attack while shovelling. Yes, it happens, but usually to people who are in certain risk groups for heart attack anyways (older, overweight, sedentary). If you think that might be you, you can pay somebody to shovel the sidewalk. In my neighbourhood kids go door to door offering to shovel for usually $5-$10, depending on the amount of snow.
If you are going to live in Ohio, then you better damn well learn how to shovel the snow. If you don’t, then pay the fuck up to get someone to do it, or pick the fuck up and choose to live in a building with snow management. Any other argument is just ridiculous.
Lily - yeah, you are supposed to both shovel and salt because it’s the fucking right, kind, and sensible thing to do; this from a Chicagoan born and raised in Wisconsin, so I know from snow and cold. My sister-in-law fell in a dark parking lot on ice and broke her leg severely, requiring lots of metal hardware, surgeries, and many weeks being out of commission. My husband fell in the street, while on the job, on hidden ice and snapped his ankle - the neighbors called his post office to complain about the obscenity he let out reflexively, but none of them came to his aid or called an ambulance for him writhing in pain in the street for a bit. I guess that’s what the “fuck you, walk more carefully and suck it up” attitude leads to. (His boot supported his ankle long enough for him to drive to his next stop, but not to hold him up after getting out of the truck - fortunately there was a kind resident there who brought him in and made phone calls to his supervisor and for an ambulance.)
If you’re the heart-attacky type, hire someone. The article I linked previously does mention the risk of post-shoveling heart failure is extremely remote on a population-wide basis.
Well, I don’t doubt that I am overestimating the risk for you. For me - not so much.
You forgot to mention genetics in your risk factors and both my dad and my brother died in their early fifties from heart attacks! And neither of them were either overweight or sedentary - ‘older’ I guess depends on your definition. As I mentioned before - its a moot point - I don’t have to shovel for which I am grateful. But don’t underestimate the strength and effort that it takes to shovel snow. That is exactly why it is common for people shoveling snow to have heart attacks. I don’t have to pay someone to shovel the snow, because the city does it here. But if I did, that paltry little 5 or 10 bucks (every time it snows! in Ohio!) would not be so paltry for an unemployed ‘senior’ who is struggling to make ends meet. Sure, I could sell my house, believe me, I’ve considered it. But nowadays it would be difficult for me to just ‘break even’, even assuming I could find a buyer.
But that’s almost beside the point. Why has it become such a major struggle and such a big fucking deal for people to walk through snow??? Why has convenience become more important than people’s lives? I know in this thread, a lot of talk has been bandied about, regarding the risk to ‘life and limb’ so to speak. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see it. I read in the news about people keeling over because of heart attacks from shoveling snow, but I hear nothing about deaths due to too much snow on the sidewalk. Yes, it makes it difficult to walk through. Yes, its inconvenient - winter has a tendency to be that way. But dying because someone didn’t shovel their sidewalk? I don’t know how I’ve lived so many years in the snowy northeast without hearing more of these stories.
Yes, I’m old. And I grew up here. And much as I hate to trot out the old ‘walking to school uphill through the snow, barefoot, both ways’ meme… there is a certain amount of truth to it. I walked to school when I was a kid, and walked home again at lunchtime, then back to school, then back home again. In winter. In the snow. Sometimes the walks were shoveled, more often not. We had boots. We had the kind of boots that fit over your shoes, so they were actually warm. and effective!
Somehow we survived it, and you know? It wasn’t all that difficult!
I dunno, I just don’t get what the outrage is all about. You people are just fucking pussies…
My yard has sidewalks on 3 sides, about a quarter mile long total, and I don’t shovel them.
The thing is that the sidewalks are right at the edge of the road, nothing in between. As it is now, as usual, the sidewalks, and about 3 to 5 feet of road are covered in a 4 foot high snowbank. The plow drivers plow snow from 3 different streets onto the 2 corners, making holy piles of snow.
How the hell do I dig a tunnel through that? And where would I put the snow?
I feel bad for the people who have to walk in the street, but it’s really the plow drivers fault. My arms are literally tied here and there is nothing I can do!
That was my thought, too, actually after reading the OP.
Okay - so you’re one of the people who would need to make other plans and pay for someone to shovel for them. As for the ‘woe is me, it’s too expensive!’ attitude - home maintenance is the responsibility of the home owner. If the home owner becomes unable to maintain their home, they need to relocate or to make other plans (eg., pay someone).
Do you not mow your lawn? Do you just pile up your garbage in the back yard and never take it to the curb? When you do drag it to the curb, do you leave your garbage cans out on the street for days for other people to trip over? Do you park your car wherever you want - on the sidewalk, in front of other peoples driveways, etc.? After all, that would be easier than clearing your own driveway, and we can’t have you risking that inevitable heart attack.
Lots of parts of home ownership are inconvenient and can be physically demanding. Either choose not to enter the contract of ownership (keeping your property to some minimum standards) or suck it up, buttercup.
It’s not convenience - I wouldn’t call breaking a leg or wrist ‘inconvenient’ myself. Apart from anything else I’m sure that can be majorly expensive in the US. Since your argument is partially based on finances, why don’t other peoples finances count? Also, I’m sure many seniors just stay in a lot during the winter to avoid the icy sidewalks of assholes.
Yeah, because nobody else here grew up somewhere snowy and walked around :rolleyes:. I grew up in the Canadian prairies. I also walked to school and back, and yes, sometimes there was snow on the sidewalks. If it was bad we had to walk in the street - I’m sure that’s a good idea and you wouldn’t complain at all about children walking in the road. Regardless, my parents made me and my siblings go out and shovel our sidewalk/driveway/path. In -40C weather. And you know what, I survived! It wasn’t all that difficult!
Yeah, FH, you and I are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. My ‘attitude’ would not have led to the same type of reaction that your husbands’ neighbors had. Whatever the reason for their indifference to his suffering, I doubt that it had anything to do with their feelings of ‘walk carefully and suck it up!’. Sounds to me that the neighborhood issues were a little deeper than just that.
I, too, fell in a dark parking lot on ice and I broke my shoulder. It hurt like hell and I am not so young that it healed all that quickly. But I never thought that it was any more than an accident - an accident that is not entirely unexpected in a snowy winter. It’s not the first time that ice has broken one of my bones. The funny thing is (well, not really funny funny, you know) is that both times that I broke a bone was in shoveled/plowed areas - but there was still ice, you see? Sometimes, even if you salt - there’s still ice - it’s chemistry!
See, I just grew up knowing that sometimes ‘accidents happen’. Yeah, sure maybe in the best of all possible worlds we could eliminate every possible source of an accident. But, maybe not. But really? You need to be in a world where ice is not slippery? Or that winter does not involve ice? And that you don’t have to think about any of that? I don’t think that it was your sis-in-law’s ‘fault’ that she fell, I don’t think that it was your husband’s ‘fault’ that he fell. And I don’t think that it was my ‘fault’ that I fell. I think that sometimes people fall due to ice or snow. Sometimes. Its called winter.
It’s winter. There’s snow, there’s ice, if you’re not careful you might fall. And sometimes even if you are careful you might fall. You probably won’t die, but you might fall.
I have the same issue where I live. I live on a corner lot, but on the South side of my property the snowplows do this to me ALL the time. Even more aggravating was one year I spent all this time shoveling the sidewalk, and the snow plows came through and covered most of it up. I re-shovelled, and they did it AGAIN! I took pictures, and was going to email them to the city until I realized the asshole snow plow drivers would find out who I was and make it even worse. Its along a snow emergency route, but for crying out loud the street is almost 30’ wide, cant they cut a brother a break???
When they do this, Im sorry—Im only shoveling a deer path so people can get through, theres no fucking way I am clearing then entire walk and shovelling out a 4’ high snow drift. If someone complains, I take pictures every time, just in case, AND if they ever have the balls to say something to me, I’ll tell them to call the city and have them shovel my sidewalk! :mad:
Same thing with the ice storm we had this week—I got so exhausted and my arms so tired, I did a two shovel wide deer path on a 8’ wide sidewalk (my snow thrower doesn’t do slush), but I also salted it so people can get through. And yes, I cut a path to the street so all the dog walkers out there can let their dogs shit in the snow, and quick cover it up, and then I have to deal with it in the Spring. :mad: I mean, really, this is who this is all about, right? To clear a path so someone can walk their mutts, and for that 1 in a 1000 chance emergency personnel need to get through.
We also have that one annoying neighbor on our block that NEVER shovels her sidewalk. She’s actually a very nice lady, so I never bothered to report her you can get fined where I live too), but its annoying to see all of us have shoveled our walks, and she is always the only one. And I feel badly for pedestrians that now have to go out into the street or walk in icy snow to get through here 20’ of sidewalk.
Now, I will say this----my next door neighbor almost always uses a snow thrower, but only does his sidewalk and driveway . . . .if you have a snow thrower, why wouldn’t you at the very least go up and down your block, and at least do a deer path for your neighbors? To do otherwise is, IMO, cynical.
I didn’t bring mine out this year (I only bring it out if they are calling for more than 8", mainly because I hate dragging it out, and I actually don’t mind a little exercise) but in previous years, when I did, I at the very lease went all the way up and down my side of the block and did a deer path for everyone. Even for The Lady Who Never Shovels.
I do have to pit myself, however: usually, I try to shovel a path on my lawn to my oil pipeline, cable box, and water/electrical boxes. I forget to do it in the last storm, and the oil truck came, and there are these sad footprints set deep in the snow leading from my street to the oil receptacle. 
Couldn’t have said it better, Meyer6. It’s part of the social contract of living in a society - I shovel mine, you shovel yours.