white christmas

[mellowtigger]

I just spent about 2 hours shoveling snow, and I'm still not done.  This is the kind of snow that teaches you how glaciers form.  It's wet, thick, and very heavy.  Yes, glaciers can wear down mountains under their sliding weight.

It's not so much a matter of shoveling, really.  Shoveling the walkways is easy.  Slide, lift, dump.  Easy.  The trouble, however, is that the driveway here is boxed in.  There's no place to dump the snow.  The only solution is to slide, lift, haul to the backyard, throw far enough away from the walkway that the pile doesn't further box us in.  The pile is taller than I am now. 



I still haven't moved enough snow for me to get my truck out (pictured on the left).  But they also haven't plowed the alleyway yet, and that's going to move a lot of snow around.  Actually, they haven't plowed the street recently either.  I think I'll wait until they do the alley before I finish clearing off the incline leading to the driveway.

Buses are operating on Sunday schedules, which means you can sacrifice the whole day to transportation if you want to go anywhere.  Better than doing without travel at all, I suppose.  I'm supposed to attend a Bear christmas dinner in downtown Minneapolis tomorrow.  I think I'll consider taking the bus so I don't have to get my truck out on these roads until Monday afternoon for work.

Comments

[kauko.livejournal.com]

You people and you're white christmases :P i've never seen snow on christmas my whole life.

[bbearseviltwin.livejournal.com]

You aren't missing a thing, snow is cold, wet, heavy, and a major pain to deal with on so many levels.

[mellowtigger]

I still want to see a blizzard, though. I've been here more than a decade and still haven't seen a real blizzard. :(

[bbearseviltwin.livejournal.com]

been through 3 of them, they aren't alll that much fun unless you are some place warm with lots of food and don't have to go anywhere for days/weeks

[kauko.livejournal.com]

When you live somewhere where snow is an uncommon thing you tend to retain that childhood fascination with snow as this magical, beautiful thing that you look forward to.

[litch.livejournal.com]

compact the driveway instead of clear it

[mellowtigger]

Ack! That would be a good plan in warmer climates. Here, though, it's urgent that I remove snow before tires and shoes crush it into ice. Whatever's on the ground now will not disappear until March. If I don't get it up now, then by February I resort to using a different tool, trying to crack through the ice so I can move it away and stop slipping around on it.

Moving snow is still easier. :)

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

You ... are ... a ... GOD!

THANK YOU!

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, snow CAN be a pain in the ass, as you have illustrated. For human purposes it needs to be shovelled and plowed and deposited wherever it will be out of the way. Heavy, wet snows (like what we got here in West Virginia a week ago) bring down power lines and cause electric outages, and that sucks.

But I'm becoming more cognizant of how important snow really is ... mainly because it helps sequester water ABOVEGROUND. This is an important freshwater supply for human consumption and agriculture. And unfortunately it seems to be waning.