Mid-January and Chicago finally got measurable snow. Will get. Is getting. It is coming down out there, is what I’m trying to say. I am not a fan of the white stuff. It’s cold, for starters. It’s wet. And it needs to be removed from where it lands so we may continue with our lives.
Case in point:
That is one long-ass driveway. I shoveled that sumbitch by hand. Both hands, actually. I’m typing with my eyelashes right now; my tongue hurts too much from biting off the profanity for 90 minutes. I took this from the sidewalk. Behind me is the rest of the driveway to the street. Don’t forget the sidewalks themselves! Have to clear those as well! And behind that one car garage there that will someday be an office and mudroom, there is a widening of the blacktop to the two car garage in back. In closing, I hurt and we’re out of Ice Melt.
But Chicago knows how to do a WINTER STORM WARNING!!! (yes, all caps required) right. They don’t dick around with snow removal out here. A plow barreled down my street no fewer than six times today, both plowing and spraying salt. Like a winged chariot from Snow Heaven, I tell you. I can count on one finger the number of times I saw a plow down our street in Colorado; I’m convinced he was lost. Colorado relies on the Divine Intervention method of snow removal: pray for the sun to come out and melt it. Chicago learnt its lesson in 1979. I was a wee lass of five, but I still remember that blizzard and the HELL it played on the metro area. Nine feet of snow. The mayor learned that elections are won and lost (um, lost, in this case) by snow removal, and I learned that I could finally reach the bottom branch of the ginormous tree in front of our apartment. Oh, and that if you shovel out your parking space, sawhorses and boards really are needed to save it from the soul-sucking morons who would park there, may they be cursed with incurable armpit rot.
As of now, school (for J) is still on for tomorrow. As a new homeschooler, A has the pleasure of school regardless <insert evil cackle here>. Tom can work from home. I will continue with muscle-building cardio snow removal day two. The driveway looked like that for precisely 7.8452 seconds before it started snowing over again. There’s another solid couple of inches out there waiting for me.
Winter has finally arrived. It can leave any time now.
The blizzard of ’79 seriously messed with my birthday party! This is why I celebrate my half-birthday in June instead.
Well done on shoveling that huge driveway, and as a frequent pedestrian, I bless you for doing the sidewalks. 🙂
LOL! That blizzard was hell. I’m so glad I was so young and could enjoy it.
Um…I *did* the sidewalks. They need shoveling again and I’m not so much up for going back out there right now. It’s really really cold out there. Maybe tomorrow. 😉
I enjoy shoveling the snow and do my elderly neighbours’ walks (three extras) as well. What I really love is when the guy with the snow blower comes out and does my driveway!
I’m north of Chicago…how fast can you get here again? LOL
Ah you’ve captured my emotions about snow so beautifully. Sometimes with you I forget I need to think for myself. 🙂
And on Colorado, let’s face it, they have more of the Divine Intervention to go around it seems. I lived there for 10 years and literally shoveled twice. 360 days of sunshine or something obnoxious like that, right?
Yup, 300 days of sunshine a year. My SAD LOVED it. Here? Been a few days since I’ve seen the sun and the dark tendrils are creeping back up. 🙁 Thank GOD for my Happy Lamp.
yeah, baby….ain’t it great!!!? 😛
We did my parents’ driveway/sidewalks, and my in-law’s yesterday. Like you said, an hour later, it looked like no one touched them. Thankfully, my neighbor used his snowblower on my driveway while I was at work today. Too sweet!!