Snow Removal Day in Minnesota

[MineralMan]

And Iowa and other places. Folks are heading out the door this morning to clear their driveways and sidewalks of a foot or more of new snow in many places.

If you're one of those folks, as I am, take care of yourself. Take the job slowly and get some rest when you need it. The snow will still be there when you go back out. It's not going anywhere, and neither are most people for a while.

Don't push yourself beyond your limits. We need everyone to still be around to help get out the Democratic vote later in the year!

And with that, I'm putting on my parka, grabbing my snow shovel, and going out for a stint of snow removal right now.

GOTV 2014 and Beyond!

[leftyohiolib]

1. ****** GOTV 2014 and Beyond! ****** this!!!!

every race in every election they are all important and all need to be focused on

[rurallib]

2. boy oh boy did we get lucky

Eastern Iowa -
lot of wind, little snow, some rain. Looks like we got rid of about 3 feet of standing snow over the last few days.

Got a pic yesterday of my SIL standing next to a mound about 7 feet high of snow up in the twin cities.

[MineralMan]

4. Good deal.

Just finished blowing the snow off the driveway and city sidewalks. I'm warming up before doing more.

[frazzled]

3. An apt literary quote

a Minneapolis friend of mine posted on FB, along with a picture of their neatly shoveled steps with feet-worth of snow piled up on each edge:

"Winter is not a season, it's an occupation." -- Sinclair Lewis

We lived in Minneapolis for 15 years, during the 80s and 90s. I remember many a winter that was like this one. And the endless snow shoveling. (Word to prospective Minnesota home buyers: do NOT buy a house on a corner lot.)

I remember a few things:

(1) The time it snowed 27 inches on Halloween night, and we didn't find the pumpkin in our front yard until April.
(2) The time we had to call our next door neighbors to come shovel around our front door one morning, because a drift had blocked us in: we couldn't open the door to get outside to shovel. They freed us and came in and we drank hot chocolate and laughed for several hours.
(3) The many times we'd get our sloping (double-wide) driveway shoveled down to the bone (another tip to prospective buyers: do NOT buy a house with a pitched driveway), and then the city plows would come and dump an entire block's worth of snow in front of it.
(4) With respect to (3), the time my husband was in Berlin in January, and I had to shovel that drive in the frigid temps all by myself, and I was so proud and fatigued. And then the plow came by and dumped a four-foot-high wall of compacted snow in front of it. And I had to go pick up my kids. And I tried to clear enough out to get out of my garage. And it was like solid ice. And I'm only a smidge over 5 feet tall anyway. And I was exhausted and making no progress, and I just walked out into the middle of the street and cursed and then fell down and cried. I don't remember at all how it ended.

[MineralMan]

5. The end of the driveway thing is a killer.

That's coming later today. Yuck!

[frazzled]

8. The thing that used to get me about it was ...

There were some pretty substantial stretches of the street both next to and across from our house where all that snow from the plow could have been dumped. But they always came and dumped it right in front of our drive. It was sadistic.

[MineralMan]

9. I don't think it's deliberate. The plow goes along

and snow comes out on the curb side of the angled plow. That's how it works. It piles up beside the curb and the existing snowpile from previous plowings, except where there's a driveway. There, it has nothing to pile up against so it dumps on the driveway apron. There's no way around it, and the city plows don't have time to clean out driveway aprons if they're going to get the whole city plowed.

It's a constant problem for people with driveways. I have a double driveway, so I get twice as much. When I can, I snowblow an 8' wide strip of street along the curb to give the snowplow room to dump before it gets to my driveway. Today, I can't do that. The snow is too deep and there's too much slush in the gutters. So, this afternoon, there will be a big-ass pile of icky snow to clear. Not looking forward to that.

[frazzled]

12. That's what you would think

In my case, I'm saying that they didn't pile the snow up with the angled plow all along the length of the curb. We'd have a situation where the piles in along the curb were maybe two feet high (from our own plowing of the sidewalk); they'd pass by these areas and then dump an entire load four to five feet high in front of our drive. I had a big window onto the street: I'd watch them. I'm not kidding here.

[Coyotl]

6. Daffodils are starting to bloom in Oregon

after a couple of weeks of snow and then rain storms.

[MineralMan]

7. We still have at least a couple of months before that.

We won't see the ground until April or May.

[MadrasT]

10. I'm sorry Mineral Man.

I am so sick of snow. If/when it snows here again (SE PA) I will not be a happy camper. Boy has my shovel gotten a workout this year.

[MineralMan]

11. We're all sick of snow this year.

But, that's the thing about living in cold winter areas. It happens. I call it my winter stress test for my heart. So far, so good. I never have any issues, and I'm 68 years old now. I told my doctor about that stress test, and he said, "Well, if you don't have any discomfort or shortness of breath doing that, you're doing just fine. See you next year."