20 years in Burbank California. Moved to NE Ohio in 2000. I love shovelling, very Norman Rockwell. Brisk cold air, the satisfying surge of muscles, the feeling of doing a chore and doing it well. Ahh…
Until last night.
Loooong day at new job. Looong drive home from lake-effect slush-ville. Then straight to ballroom dance class and I’m tired, dagnabbit! So I get home to 16 inches of snow-covered icy driveway and my 13-year old cartoon boy is just sitting there with a look that was begging for the snowball to the kisser “I shovelled it already today.” Arrrgh. It was 1 hour past his bedtime so I had to scrape away the ice and hack out a path to the garage myself. In my great wrath I did it in a quarter of the time it usually takes. Just wait 'til he asks for his allowance, “I gave you some money last week”.
Last night I had a knock-down-drag-out with Mr. Elf because he wouldn’t let me shovel. This makes no sense. I’m a perfectly healthy, strong woman, and I wanted to shovel. The snow was light, and I like being outside in it. He kept complaining about having to go back out to shovel, and I kept saying, “No, I’ll go.” I even put on my coat, and was in the middle of putting on my boots when the fight started. I sincerely wanted to shovel. I still don’t know what his problem was. :rolleyes:
I have a solution to recommend: move next to a retired guy with a snowblower.
My neighbour does his driveway and sidewalk, then he does the City sidewalk from his house to the end of the block, and on his way back he does everybody else’s sidewalks.
WOW! Are you a lucky person. I need to get the wheels on my trailer and drag it to a person like that. (By the way, I have a beautiful trailer and a lot of classy retiries in the retired section.)
Next time, come shovel me out. I will not only properly admire your sexy shoveling muscles, I will provide hot chocolate and a back rub after you’re done!
(Nope, I don’t like to shovel either, especially after the condo complex has done their usual shitty job of plowing. And they STILL haven’t cleared the sidewalks.)
I was all set to be pissed at my city administration for not plowing my street for two days. Finally, a plow shows up at about 6 PM toinight. This wasn’t one of those puny little pickups either, but a six-axle dump truck with a plow on the front. He got about 50 yards up the street, then gave up. Two hours later, the city brought in a jumbo-sized front end loader which manged to do the trick.
I figure a little shoveling is a decent tradeoff for a five-day weekend.
I swear to god, I must have moved at least 20 tons of snow between yesterday and today. My spine has told me to fuck off and has started a mutiny involving all my other limbs. It’s getting bad- I think they may try to eject me from the body.
There was this 4-foot-high island of compacted snow at the foot of my driveway that I had to hack at with a metal spade before I could even start shovelling it. And my stupid boyfriend was in bed with a stupid cold, so of course he couldn’t come help. Occasionally he’d stagger to the window and shout out some encouragement. He’s lucky to be alive.
It was so bad that last night that for the first time in many, many years, I just got drunk and laid on the couch. Things would have gone well had I not woken up this morning with a red wine hang-over and my spinal cord plotting insurrection. Fuck the mailman- bastard can clear his own path. If it’s that important, they’ll send another notice.
But what’s up with the teenaged crowd not trying to earn some shovelling money? There are plenty of teens in my neighborhood, too, and not a single one came by to offer to shovel for anyone. I gladly would have paid some kid $30 to deal with this shit. From the time I was maybe twelve until I got my first job at sixteen, every snowfall my friends and I would hit up all the old folks in the neighborhood. Sure, shovelling sucked, but we were young, and 5 or 10 dollars was a lot of money to us. I never got an allowance, so baby-sitting and shovelling with the occasional odd-job was my sole source of income as a kid. I remember one winter when I was about 14, we made almost $100 just from shovelling driveways. How come nobody does this anymore? A lot of people have snowblowers, it’s true, but for all the people that don’t, borrowing your parents’ snowblower and scouring the neighborhood would be a great way for a young’un to make some quick cash.
I decided to try shovelling to music: Beethoven’s 9th. Figured by the time I got to the Ode to Joy I’d be done.
Well, it was a nice thought, anyway. Still had a quarter of the driveway to go by the time it was done, plus the entrance, but I wasn’t going to even attempt that until after they’d plowed, which of course they hadn’t yet, so I went back inside.
That was yesterday. Finished it up this morning, as they’d plowed overnight.
BTW, anyone with a backyard own a dog? Did you find you had to shovel a path for the dog to be able to go out?
Oh, and Cleophus, fuck you very much.
Yes! I have 3 dogs now, a bloodhound, a pitbull, and a basset hound. The bloodhound loves the snow, and he’s really tall, so he could romp pretty well. But the pitbull is kinda short, and he hates getting his feet wet, (don’t ask) and the basset is still a little puppy, so I had to shovel from the back door to the lawn, and then shovel out a small ‘pooping area’ for the dogs. When I opened the back door, all this snow poured in, and I knew right there just where the day was going.
After the “Blizzard of '96”, some coworkers and I were sharing stories once we were able to get back into work. One of them was telling me how she and her husband had trained their dog not to do its business any closer to the house than a certain tree. This turned out to be a real problem during/after the snowstorm, since they had to shovel a path out to that tree for the dog. The whole time they’re telling the dog “No, really, just this once, you can go right here,” and the poor dog is doing the equivalent of the dog peepee dance “oh, hurry, please hurry, I really have to go!”, while dancing back and forth on its (more or less) crossed legs.
Hell of an image.
Oh, and Robot Arm, I live in NJ. I also give killer backrubs (just ask iampunha or TruePices).
In Wyoming I was the first one out in the morning in our neighbourhood shoveling. When I finished my yard, I often did the neighbour’s walks as well (especially the older ones who might have trouble doing it).
The dogs loved chasing the snow (except the occasional accidental whack in the face with the shovel) and I got a good workout.
Anyone want help, just bring me in, offer me a cuppa cocoa or tea and I’m your snow shoveling gal
My son, age 9, put fliers in our neighbors boxes for shoveling services.
He even undercharges at $1 for front and back porch, .50 cents for car.
Only one nice lady used his services (twice).
BAH. At least you got snow and not ice/sleet/freezing rain. I got stuck on I-40 in Raleigh in that shit on Sunday. It took me 4 hours to get to Winston-Salem. Usually it only takes me an hour and a half.
You got snowplows? What’s that like? Here in NC we barely have enough to cover the 5 major central cities whenever it snows or ices.
My back has finally recovered from the shovelling I had to do the other day.
The plows finally came through and left us some four foot high piles of snow and ice. After cutting the piles up we shovelled and then we cut some more and then we shovelled and then we cut… I think you get it.