Spence wrote:Mountainman wrote:All is well……. I ventured out yesterday, armed with my snow shovel, to clear the snow from my driveway. I want you to know I had the ONLY cleared driveway in the neighborhood, and it looked great. After completing the task, I came back inside, took off my snowy clothing, and the proceeded to the bathroom where I filled the tub with steamy hot water. I then stepped into the tub with the very much needed intent of thawing my frozen buttocks.
I got up early this morning. I fixed myself a steamy hot cup of coffee and proceeded to the family room to sit in my favorite chair and enjoy my coffee. Entering the room I glanced out the window to see my driveway……. absolutely covered from end to end and side to side with freshly fallen snow. .
My driveway is 300 feet long with a slight incline. (about 6ft down from the road) I shoveled about 100feet of it 3 separate times. The last 200 feet I drove up and down to make a path so I could get through without shoveling and not bottom out my wife's car. So this morning we were about to get all of our cars out of my driveway and be able to get to work. (we had 11 inches). My next door neighbor who is in her mid 70's had been gone since Sunday devided to come home to a driveway that hadn't been touched and pull in over 11" of snow. She bottomed out and called me to help her. So needless to say I was 2/1/2 hours late to work anyway and with a really sore back.
I've learned to go out early, and to shovel as it accumulates every so many inches.
One year, I felt so good about myself, shoveling the drive, with as much snow as we got, shoveled the street all the way across the entire width of my drive.
It was wild watching people driving down the road, hearing their cars or trucks struggling a bit as they carved through the snow before the plows came around. Then when they got to where our drive met the road, found a patch of clearing, as they would use that to accelerate before hitting the next section of deep build up.
Then the plows came, and turned my open two lane clearing into a narrow one lane channel, knocking the pile where I put the snow back into my driveway.
Not to be deterred, I went back out, and shoveled my drive and road clear again, this time opening the two lane path between where our mailbox is, about 15 feet from the end of the drive opening, all the way down to the neighbors' mailboxes, down the other side of our front yard, maybe about 70 feet or so between.
Sure enough, the plows came back, this time, swerved towards the massive mounds of snow I piled up near the curb of my drive, and knocked the snow back 15 feet into my drive, and I had over a foot of snow pushed back that I had taken over 2 hours to shovel.
Rather than driving down the middle of the road, which would have left a large section as two open lanes, they plowed it all back to one lane, while reburying everyone's driveway entrances.
I was ticked, to say the least.
Now, everyone does their part on our road.
One day, I was on my way home with the expectation of needing to clear 18 inches, only to find tire tracks and a freshly plowed out drive. One of my neighbors who has a plow on the front of his truck, cleared my drive for me. Another neighbor has been clearing out the ends of our street with a plow attached to his riding lawnmower.
It truly helps, because the city plows leave a triangle wedge at each end of the street, where many people have gotten stuck.
Now, we can merely drive out with no resistance.
That all being said, we've only had small quick bursts of down drift over the last week.
Nothing really deep. Just enough to cover the ground, where the sun comes out and reduces it, before the next blast comes in.
The temperatures have been down right frigid.
Though, even now when the wind chills hit zero or below, I've already started to adapt.
The only real difficulty is keeping a watchful enough eye, to know who isn't acclimated to driving in these conditions.
You can go the speed limit easily enough on some roads. But the back roads, that's where things can get dangerous. Because people are used to the main traffic ways that get the salt. The back roads don't see as much attention. They don't get treated as often, so Black Ice patches can spin a car traveling a straight line, before you know what's happening.
I've seen more than one vehicle off into the grass.
Gotta be vigilant; or that could be the guy driving next to you.
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