Snow

If ever there was a time that I am willing to forgo my frugal nature and purchase a $1,200 snowblower, it’s the moment that I finish shoveling my driveway after 13 inches of heavy, wet snow.

Over the last few days, we’ve received somewhere around 18 inches of total snow accumulation and I only own a shovel.

Well, technically I own a snowblower. It was a free gift from my father in law this last summer. We rescued it from underneath a pile of wood and other clutter in his shop, and I’m a sucker for free stuff. So when he asked if I wanted it even though he didn’t know if it ran, I jumped at the opportunity to add one more project to my list. I then proceeded to procrastinate on that project until the second heavy snowfall this year, at which point I finally poured some gas into the machine and tried to fire it up.

I’m not sure there’s a great word to explain the feeling of anticipation and anxiety that one experiences when pulling back on the flywheel cable of a small engine for a machine one desparately needs and being answered by a continuous chrous of pfut pfut pfut pfut pfut. I prepared myself to swing a shovel once more even as I primed the engine and pulled 5-10 more times, just to see if I would be rewarded for my tenacity.

And wouldn’t you know - with a sputter and a cough, the tiny snowblower crawled to life. Unfortunately, it was spitting out white smoke faster than a cartoon steam engine. Obviously my gas to oil mix was wrong, and I’m sure I accelerated global warming by a year for every three minutes the thing was running. A project for another time, since I had urgent need of any snow removal toolsa t my disposal.

But I wouldn’t have to shovel.

As I cleared the foot of snow from my driveway, I couldn’t help but feel a bit a pride and vindication. After all, I was able to get a little more life out of an otherwise forgotten thing. And that extra life was improving the quality of my own.

I was still thinking such thoughts when, after release the bar that engaged the auger to move to a new row of snow, when the auger engagement cable snapped. For a few seconds, I simply stared at the coughing, sputtering, smoking engine that was no longer serving any purpose but pollution. And then I tried to solve my problem by coiling the snapped cable around my hand and pulling back so that I could engage the auger that way.

And then the cable snapped again.

So I would have to shovel after all, it seemed. And I did. And it got done. And the snowblower got parked to the side to be fixed another day, ideally before the next snow day.

And now, today, after over a foot of snow has fallen in the last 24 hours, I find myself shoveling again. The snow is heavy, and wet, and my lower back has decided to rebel, but the driveway must be cleared if we are to go to work or get groceries the rest of the winter.

And as I watched my neighbor, and his neighbor, and half the block of my neighborhood, out with snowblowers, walking slowly behind as their humming engines spit snow 40 feet away from the driveway, I thought You know, Phil. If you think about it, $1,200 isn’t that expensive. It’s the same cost as a high quality computer. And think of all the time you could save! It might be time to investigate buying a new snowblower.

Thankfully, my neighbor did come do the last ten feet or so of my driveway, where the street plower had created around 24-30 inches of compacted snow and ice. And my back will be forever grateful.

So here I am, warmed up and sitting at my desk inside my cozy house with a cleared driveway, a sore back, and six browser tabs open for various models and snowblower purchasing guides. Perhaps I will find my way out to the garage this week to poke around, or even ingeniously repair the broken cable. Or maybe I’ll actually bite the bullet and lay down a cool grand for a new power toy that I’ll get frustrated about maintaining or moving around for the 350 days of the year that I don’t actually need it.

But in reality: I fully expect that I’ll be shoveling at the next major snowfall. Maybe I could buy a proper scoop shovel. It’s about 900% cheaper, after all.