5 posts tagged “snow”

Old Man Winter wanted to remind us that he's still got a little fight left in him, making for a very black and white world this morning (with little splashes of color).

April Snow

Black and White World

Finches #1

Finches #2

1 comment

What, to you, is the first sign of spring? Have you seen it yet?
Submitted by Spy.

Signs of Spring

My current commute involves driving to a parking garage and then taking public transportation.  The garage closes after it fills up, so I have to make sure I get there before it's full.  This means I don't have the luxury of time in the morning to do things like shovel my driveway if it snows, so I hired a plowing service for the first time in my life.  Fortunately, if I plan ahead I can usually work at home on snow days, which is a good thing because the plowing service sucks.  In my mind, the only reason for getting a service was so if it snowed overnight my driveway would be clear so I could leave in the morning and if it snowed during the day my driveway would be clear for my return.  Since I've been able to work at home for the two major storms we've had I didn't really care when the driveway was cleared, but it just so happened that for both storms my friend peforming in an opera was visiting needed to get in and out.  During the first storm both cars were in the driveway and the snow kept piling up.  I finally broke down and called the service at 4pm, an hour before my friend had to leave for his evening rehearsal, figuring if they weren't coming that would give us enough time to clear the 7-8" of snow.  It was a good thing I called, because aparently I'd fallen off their list.  They arrived within 45 minutes and cleared the driveway.  Yay!

I worked at home during yesterday's storm, even though it didn't start until noon, because I didn't want to deal with the messy evening commute.  Since my friend was going to be staying with me after his performance, arriving after midnight, I once again found myself worrying whether the plowing service was coming.  I waited until 8:30pm and called the service to make sure they hadn't forgotten me again.  To their credit they answer their phone promptly, and assured me they hadn't forgotten me but that they probably wouldn't get there for another couple hours.  I told them that wasn't a problem, as long as the driveway was cleared by midnight.  However, in my head I was thinking it's a good thing I hadn't driven to work, because I would have come home to a driveway covered in 8" of snow and ice.  I didn't bring any of that up because I figured he was probably driving and I didn't want to engage him in a discussion.

Is this how all plowing services operate?  I'm tempted to cancel my service for the rest of the season (hopefully there won't be too many more storms, anyway), but it was nice not having to dig my way through the mess the street and sidewalk plows leave at the end of my driveway.  If I decide to hire a service again next year, I'll definitely look for someone else.