Relative Something

Yesterday was a failure for me in two ways. My ill-conceived attempt to simplify the connection of the winch hook to the plow blade proved woefully insufficient. To distract me from that frustration, I turned on the Vikings football game and was faced with a profound embarrassment for the team and all of its fans.

It looked like we probably got around 5-6 inches of snow accumulation from Saturday’s storm. The ground isn’t frozen solid yet, and what little residual warmth still exists was making the base layer just sticky enough to be annoying. It stuck to the plow blade and to the shovels. It is such a draining tedium when half a shovel-full stays on the shovel after every attempt to toss it.

I have needed to plow so infrequently over the last two winters that I guess I’m out of practice. I forgot how much the nylon rope on my winch stretches as it gets repeatedly snugged with a constant back and forth from lifting and dropping the blade. The added weight of snow sticking to the blade exacerbated the issue.

The kicker that ultimately caused me to give up trying was that the mechanism to pull a pin back, allowing the blade to be angled, stopped working. I assumed it was frozen with packed ice and snow, so I parked the Grizzly back in the garage to be dealt with later.

That left me doing more hand shoveling than I would have liked, but I got enough done to receive our guests for brunch with the place looking satisfactorily welcoming.

Today, I will be giving the winch lift issue the time and attention it deserves to resolve it. I’m not sure if the problem with the pin for blade-angle adjustment was an isolated incident or something more concerning. The mechanism was used when we bought the ATV, and that was 13 winters ago. It won’t be a big shock if something’s just plum worn out.

Like any good glutton for punishment, I turned on the football game after our guests left. Ouch. Seriously, ouch. It was painful to witness. The one positive I can take from the spectacle of the offense’s epic ineffectiveness is that I have no reason to look for entertainment in watching them play for the rest of the season.

I’d rather settle into my favorite recliner and finish some of the books that I’m currently juggling.

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