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February 18, 2003
The Life and Times of Shovels
Well it was interesting day of digging out Nishod (Andy's friend) and (sort of) my car. We started with no shovels, only a garbage bucket and our hands. Then we picked up a garden shovel from one of Andy's classmates. Soon I remembered the little shovel in the car and got that out. A bit later a freaky lady came by and offered her help for $3. We gave her $2 for the use of her shovel. Work was progressing, but we had some serious problems, mainly where to put the snow.
As we piled the snow up against the sidewalk the residents of the basement apartments complained that they couldn't see out their windows. I had no sympathy for this as I really have no other place to put the snow. We aren't allow to put it on the street (supposedly) and the only open spot we have is the sidewalk. So there it piled up. Unfortunately, the snow became a bit heavier as the day went on, leading to the worst accident we could have had: the broken shovel. The Little Black AAA car shovel died an honorable death in mid scooping motion, a mere month after it's acceptance. A post-mortem autopsy reveled a small chunk of ice split the blade down the center, causing both sides of the blade to fall off the handle. So much for flimsy plastic shovels, where are those great orange shovels of my youth?
Once we discovered we had a shovel down and there was no way to fix it, a moment of silence was had for the shovel by all on the street. Little Black AAA Shovel was laid to rest in a graveyard full of shovel corpses from around the neighborhood that had not survived the task at hand, and promptly covered with snow. Then, we drank orange juice and water in an effort to regroup and come up with a new shoveling strategy.
After about an hour we got Nishod's car out, but in the process we buried mine slightly. I figured it was okay since I wasn't planing on driving anywhere anytime soon. This also adds to the joy of taking a terrorist parking spot. The way I figure it, if a tow truck really wants to pull my car out of the snow for me, the less work it is for me. But the tow truck has about a 4' x 7' block of snow that sits about 4' deep to get through first, and just barely a street wide enough to get the truck down now.
Posted by Dan at February 18, 2003 07:37 PM