Our sidewalk is under there somewhere!
I thought we were going to lose our power at about 8 o’clock last night when the lights flickered and two of the local television stations went off the air temporarily, but that was the extent it. By early this morning the temperatures were in the upper 30s and all the ice had melted. Unfortunately, that also meant our 6 inches of snow had compacted down into a heavy, crunchy mess.
As I type with my blistered hands and sore shoulders, I have to vent. This city’s snow removal process is laughable. And I would laugh if it didn’t make me so angry. They are notorious for clearing bike paths before streets, and are very serious about ticketing people who do not clear their sidewalks by noon. Yet they do everything in their power to make that as difficult as possible.
I understand crews have to put the snow somewhere and that the end of our driveways will often take the brunt. I’m fine with that. In fact, I usually enjoy shoveling. But after a heavy snow in this city they use graders and push all the snow from the street onto our sidewalks too. This morning, on top of the 6 inches of snow that fell, they left us with another several inches of heavy, compacted snow peppered with 20- to 40-lb. boulders. Are they trying to kill all the elderly and people with heart conditions?
It took us several hours to move all that snow. The mass was so crusty and heavy, our neighbor couldn’t even get his snowblower through it. Last year they plowed over our sidewalks after a foot of snow fell. The entire neighborhood was outside shoveling for most of the morning. After everyone had finished their work and was inside showering or enjoying breakfast, the graders came back up the street and in a matter of seconds, undid all our work.
Okay, my rant is over. I have to save the rest of my energy for the several inches of snow we’re supposed to get on Tuesday. It’s going to be a loooooong winter.