My blog n'at

I admit, I take pride in my snow shoveling skills. Many a winter I spent in Erie under my dad’s guidance learning when to shovel snow, how to do it with style and why you do what you do. When you get as much snow as Erie does you need to learn to accept and adapt to it. Moving to Pittsburgh has taught me that not only do people fear it but also they have no idea how to deal with it. I need to write Snow Removal for Dummies.

The picture above is steps that lead down to the parking area in my community. As you can see the steps are an abomination and the picture actually makes it look better. Late one day last week while I was at work one of the Mensa elite that live by me deemed it wise to shovel a single path from their door, across the lawn, down the steps and across the road to neighbors on the other side of the street. The effort put in was shovel down and walk.

By the time I came home and the temps dropped to single digits the snow had become ice. The issue now is that the steps are all ice and it’s too cold for salt thus making them a hazard for those who are, oh I don’t know, 29 weeks pregnant. When I’m up at 5am and outside shoveling I take the responsibility upon myself to not only clear my walkway but the neighbors all the way over to and including the steps. I don’t mind doing it but when you half ass shoveling that causes a risk to my family I get pissy.

I went out with my shovel and tried to clear the steps with no luck. My shovel almost broke when I tried to chip away at the ice so I knew it was a losing fight. So now not only am I irritated that the steps are a hazard but also at the slackass careless job. I understand it takes effort but if you’re one of these people take into consideration the others around you.

So here are my tips for you when it comes to snow removal:

• If you’re going out in temps under 32F, dress with a minimum of 2 layers. Neglecting this will cause you to whine about the cold and probably get sick thus making you worthless
• Watch the weather channel or some other radar system and shovel when the first wave is done. Yes more will fall later but in the later rounds you’ll find out it’s much easier and faster to clean up. Think of it this way, many easy small jobs or one agonizing shoveling resulting in sore muscles and long pain.
• Rock salt is your friend and it’s cheap. Use it generously.
• Cover your face. You may think your face is tough in the cold until you come into the heat and you scream like a little girl. Wind burn is not pleasant.

The temp finally went up on Monday so I went outside, cleared as much snow as I could and salted the hell out of the steps.  By morning I was able to chip away and make it a safe passage for Lushie.

In the meantime, the dumbass who originally shoveled just made a straight path from his back door, across his lawn and to his car. My guess is that the steps were too slippy for him