Friday, 12/23/11 Snow Shoveling Critiques

I never gave shoveling the sidewalk in front of my house too much thought.  It snows and then as soon as I can (either before work at 6am and/or when I get home), I shovel the driveway, sidewalk, around the community mailbox, back deck, around the garbage cans, shovel piles of snow the best I can in front/back of other neighbors (who I like less) cars who ALWAYS park around our corner lot etc....  If it looks like the neighbor (who I like) is out of town, I'll shovel their sidewalk too and a path to their door so the house does not look vacant.

Aside from that, I paid little attention to what anybody else in the neighborhood did....  UNTIL I started pushing the girls around in a double jogger and am directly affected by it.  I have since become pretty interested in observing the behavior of people all over town.

Okay, I completely understand that there are many people out there who do not have nearly as much time as I have (because parents of twins have so much spare time) or have the ripped and muscular upper body that I have, so I am absolutely sympathetic.  At the very least, they could ask a neighbor kid to do it for 5 or 10 bucks.  Heck, if I had an elderly neighbor, I would jump at the chance to shovel their house out just because it is the right thing to do and I enjoy the workout.

Today I attempted a run and it turned into a 2 mile/46 minute game of dead ends, backtracking and heaving a low slung jogger through snowbank after snowbank and we were often forced into the street (not ideal with traffic and slush).  Fortunately, I had my camera and was able to document some of the sillyness that I come across.

I got spoiled right off the bat running along my own sidewalk.

Then I come to this.  No way through, so back onto the street.

I heaved the jogger through 4-5 inch deep snow for more than a block (to avoid the somewhat busy street), only to encounter this impassable obstruction, courtesy of the person hired to plow the condos across the street.  He gets paid to plow and is a professional?  I would lose my job if I did not pay attention to detail, a skill this person seems to lack.

House for sale.  Fine, but somebody should be looking after it, not a fine selling point (coming from somebody who is currently looking to buy a house).  The next door neighbor appears to have not such a good excuse.

Nice work on the driveway (well, they could have scraped it to the surface a little better), but did not even attempt the sidewalk.

I was on a roll and enjoying an unprecedented stretch of continuity, then this.  Could not shovel the extra 20 feet?  "Nope, not my problem"

Even with a snow blower, this person just can't quite get it right.

"I'll do half the sidewalk and then take a swipe at the grass"

Another dead end.

Missed a spot on the driveway and saved that energy for a few scoops along the sidewalk to be compliant with the city rule of shoveling the sidewalk within 24 hours of a storm.

C- on the driveway.  F- on the sidewalk.  Don't they realize that people see this and makes them look lazy?  It makes you wonder where else in life they cut corners.