Snow, fun for some....

Snow, glorious snow. On top of ice, wonderful ice. Wasn't Monday's storm a wonderful reminder of how winter can be a wonderful thing when you are a child and an equally awful thing when you are an adult?

As children, bad weather means getting out of school early, getting time to play with friends and have a wonderful time. Adults, however have the responsibility of clearing out the driveway and going to work. The extra 'bonus' is worrying about what your children are doing when they are home enjoying their day off.

This snow was the first time I used my snowblower. I have often lampooned my late father Arved, known around our house as "The Chief," for the way he maintained his equipment and how, as a child, it all seemed rather silly.

Now that I'm the guy that has to take care of things, I can appreciate the Chief more and there are times when I catch myself doing things he would have done or using some of his catch phrases.

You can run, but you can't hide from who you are and where you have been.

Getting to the snowblower required removing a grass clipping bag, empty gas can, a partial bag of ice melt and a metal dog leash (don't ask.) After securing these items (piling them somewhere else) in the garage, it was time to fill up the snowblower, set the choke, prime the engine and plug in the electric starter cord.

I had the first three items done, and went to connect the cord, only to discover that the end that plugs into the snowblower had been sitting under the weight of the snowblower all spring, summer and fall.

Time to improvise, use some of those skills I have embedded in my DNA. I found a heavy duty extension cord that fit, and after a couple of tries, the snowblower fired up and kept running.

I opened the garage door, and began clearing the snow. One of the nice things about my neighborhood is having good neighbors. Whoever gets out earliest clears some of the neighbor's sidewalks. Tuesday morning I was blessed to have both of my neighbors do this for me, greatly reducing the time I had to spend moving snow.

As I moved the snow, I recalled what it was like moving snow as a child. We had no snowblowers, only a flat snow shovel. The ambitious kids in the neighborhood would earn some extra money shovelling sidewalks and driveways for the elderly. The chief was lucky if we had the shovel in the right place. Scooping the walk was "his job," which I'm sure he enjoyed after standing on concrete in the Chevy garage working on cars for eight hours.

There was one particularly snowy and cold winter that my brother and I cleared the driveway of our neighbor as a way to make money. The snow was about 10" deep and we used those awful flat shovels to scoop out the drive, down to the rock. I think I froze a lung, as well as my fingers. I think they paid us each $2.

After that, we found more profitable ways to spend our time and earn money.

The snow blower is a wonderful invention. I had little experience on the practical operation of one until my neighbor, the late Jerry Kelly, taught me the "do's" and "don'ts" of running one. I find it amazing how many people simply choose to clear their driveways by blowing the snow into the freshly cleaned street. Not nice, in my opinion.

Of course, there is the unwritten law of nature that the snowplow comes around just AFTER you have cleared your driveway, but there is little that can be done about that. They are, after all, only doing their job.

Here's hoping that we don't have to use our shovels and snowblowers too much this winter.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.