We had a White Christmas! Christmas Eve we got about six inches of snow. Thus, Christmas day, I shoveled said snow, clearing the driveway and paths to the doors. Took me maybe a half hour, but I worked slow and have a long driveway.
My neighbors, however, are no fools! They’re not gonna break their backs shovelling snow! Instead, they opted to get in the car and simply try to plow on through it in reverse to get out of their driveway. Thus, we got a full hour of Vrooom VROOOM RMMMRMMMRMMMRMMM VRMMMM VRMMMM rmmmmrmmmm VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM rm rm rm rm rm Vroooom Vroooooooooooooom Vrrmmmmmmmmm rm rm rm rm VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM as they tried first reverse, then forward, to get out. Apparently the key is, if your tires are spinning on nothing, you aren’t pushing the pedal LONG enough.
After an hour they finally got out. I wasn’t watching by this point, so I’ve no idea how they finally did it, but it was quiet again at last. Then the snowplow came by, and erected a snow barrier in front of their driveway.
So…last night around 9pm they return to the snow barrier. Now, a simple shovel and about five minute would have cleared away enough of this for them to pass, but remember, these are no dummies. That’s work! And it wouldn’t nearly be as effective as another forty minutes of VROOOOOOOMMMMMM rm rm rm rm rm VRMMMMMMM VROOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!! and so forth, which had served them so well earlier.
And the beauty of it was, not only did they not have to shovel any snow, none of their neighbors think they’re idiots or assholes!
… and with any luck, some of those VROOOOOOOOOOMMMM’s took place when they weren’t actually on the driveway, but instead, the lawn, so when the spring thaw comes, they’ll find that they have pre-dug a set of wheel-sized depressions in their grass, perfect for lining the sides of the driveway with sunken tires, thus demarking the limits of the driveway!
Hey, I can’t help it if the damned kids left the shovel in the middle of the lawn, and it got covered by snow so we can’t find it now. Sheesh.
(I don’t have kids, and I’m not your neighbor - I swear! I thought it was a better “excuse” than them not having a shovel since they didn’t realize it snowed there, though.)
I live in Texas. A friend of mine moved here from Kansas. One day in his garage I saw this funny shaped, vaguely shovel-looking thing. I pointed at it and asked, “is that a snow shovel?”
Hopefully it goes without saying that snow is not uncommon where I live. The house they live in is a rental, though, so it’s possible they’ve never encountered snow before. I just think that after a half hour of Vroooooooooooom etc doesn’t seem to be doing the trick, alternative methods should be considered.
Reminds me of the time I was in my apartment and heard the same thing coming from the street below. There was very little off-street parking for that complex; everyone either parked on the street or parallel to the alley. I got tired of the noise after a while so I went to down to investigate. I found a couple trying to get their compact off the ice and into the street. Feeling helpful, I asked the guy if he needed a push but he brushed me off. I waited for a while to see if he would change his mind or if the woman in the passenger seat would say anything. Didn’t happen so I wen’t back upstairs while the noise kept going. They must have been trying to get going for a total of at least 45 minutes.
I’ve used this method, kindof. I dug through the plow barrior then vroooooooomed my way sever times to just get in enought to get my cars ass out of the road. Maybe 5 minutes of Vrooooooooooooooooooming.
Heh. So I guess my neighbors must like my Outback as much as I do. I’ve backed out of the driveway in as much as a foot of snow. (Today was at least six inches. ) No VROOOMing.
When I lived in Madison, WI I should have done that with my driveway. VROOOOOOOOOM. All that time shoveling and I could have done it with my car! Woo Hoo!
Hey, at least they were just trying to power over the snow, unlike some people. A snowstorm had just dumped six inches of snow on our California town, and the smart people were either shoveling it or staying home. Some friends and I walked over to have a snowball fight with some other people, and on the way we saw a perplexed homeowner standing at the top of his driveway, which sloped downwards for about forty yards. He had a large gascan in his hand, and was pouring something on the snow.We commented on what he must be doing, and went on our way (about two blocks over).
About twenty minutes later, we heard the fire trucks coming and ran back to see what the deal was. Apparently Mr. Doofus had been pouring kerosene on the snow, then throwing matches. When the kerosene failed to light completely, he got the gasoline out and poured THAT on his driveway. His sloped driveway. The gasoline caught fire, melted the water, but apparently he’d used so much gas that it floated on top of the water, still burning. And straight down the slope, into the road, across the road and into his neighbour’s brushpile, which abutted his garage.
Well, I don’t know if you’ve actually seen your neighbors in person, but do you Chicago Dopers remember the blizard of Jan . 2 a few years back, when we got 2’ of snow in one evening? I was post-surgical and on crutches at the time, and if it hadn’t been for an incredibly sweet and generous neighbor shoveling out my car for me, I literally wouldn’t have been able to leave the house.
Not that this is probably the case with your neighbors, but one never knows.
About ten years ago, I moved to the suburbs of Cleveland OH after having lived my entire life within a stone’s throw of the ocean in Virginia. Never even SAW a snowblower in use, in person.
My wife couldn’t believe it when I told her that I had no IDEA that people actually owned their own snowblowers. I thougt that it was a huge appliance that one rented for a day, like a posthole auger or cement mixer.
Legomancer, so that’s what happened to the insane snow plower at UNH! She moved and lost custody of the plow.
I don’t know what the machine was, but it was the size of a lawn tractor, but had a roof, and had a snow plow on the front. The most appropriate time of the day to plow snow was at 5am on a Sunday, you know so we could go to brunch when it opened at 10am. Besides the ungodly whine of the tiny siren that acompanied it’s every reverse, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!! beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!! the damn person nearly ran over one of my neighbors one morning. She chased after him with the plow, finally backing the poor guy up the stairs, having come so close to his feet he couldn’t get the door open. Later she plowed down a six foot section of the cement railing along our building (you know, made of decorative “stone” rails that are nearly a foot thick). I don’t miss her.
Legomancer you can probably rest assured that your neighbors’ transmission now has a shorter lifespan because of their reversing/forwarding! Last year when we had a huge snow storm, I locked my keys in my car (sheepish grin) and when the tow truck guy came to rescue my keys, he told me about all of the people that he had to tow that day because they refused to dig themselves out of the snow, they just kept reversing and forwarding, and their transmissions gave out! Your neighbors are probably lucky that that hasn’t happened to them!
When this Southerner moved to Iowa, we got about 8 inches of snow one night. Having no freaking idea what I was doing, I tried to get out of the large parking lot and onto the (already plowed) street so I could go to work. Vrrroooooooooooom, vrooooooooom, went I.
After about three minutes (I still think I could have made it), the neighbor, who knew I was an idiot redneck, came out with two snow shovels. He manned one, I manned the other, and I figured it out: One moves the snow, THEN drives on it! Brilliant!
The reason for all this, of course, is that even when we get snow down here, which is about once a year, we don’t get more than three or four inches. Also it’s gone the next day. Personally, I am totally OK with this.
I just spent the holidays in the New York capital region with my in-laws, my first x-mas away from my beloved TN. On christmas day they get 2 1/2 feet of snow. That’s FEET… I was absolutely apalled, the damned electricity went off at 6… no yummy dinner for us. I spent the night huddled around their gas fired stove trying to read a book by friggin candlelight hoping I wouldn’t freeze to death and that I would still be able to get on a plane back south away from this frozen hell. Nostalgic white christmas my ass. The next day my father in law actually has to use his pickup truck to clear enough snow out of the way so he can use his lawn tractor with the snowplow blade attachment to clear his driveway.
Snow is this… it’s supposed to fall… look all pretty… accumulate perhaps as much as a couple of inches. They let school out… everybody has fun… a few days later the stuff melts away and life goes on.
Don’t even get me started on the concept of “Ice Fishing”.