Relative Something

Yesterday was another quiet day in John’s wobegon neighborhood. ‘Bout the biggest excitement to report was the delivery of new snow shovels to my doorstep. I ordered them online and had them delivered. When I got home from work, I found them leaning up against my front door. Instead of bothering with a box, they just wrapped them together with stretch-wrap, so it was clearly visible what was being delivered. I was like a kid at Christmas.

When one of my favorite tools wears out after years of service, all I want as a replacement is a new version of the very same thing. In this era of constant innovation and new product introductions, by the time my favorites wear out, that model is often long-gone, replaced by the next “improved” version on the market.

It happened with our toaster oven recently, and it happens to me all the time with clothes and shoes. When I was no longer able to find my favorite shovel at the local retail stores in my area, I went online to YO-HO Quality Tools, the source of the best snow shovel for my uses. As long as I was ordering, I bought an extra one, too, in case they discontinue this model for some newfangled one next year.

While researching the site, I found a very nice looking shovel without the metal blade on the business end of the scoop. I needed one of those, too, since I broke the one I usually keep for clearing the wood deck. A plastic shovel is also what I take up on the roof, because I don’t want to damage my shingles with a metal edged one.

So, I received three shovels wrapped together. What I was very pleased to notice when I picked them up to bring them in the house, was how surprisingly light they were, even strapped as a group of three. They weigh less combined than the metal shovel that Cyndie bought a while ago as a potential replacement because it had a yellow handle and a black blade.

In addition to the light weight, another feature that makes this shovel my favorite tool for clearing our driveway and sidewalk is the shape of the scoop. It is shaped with side edges and an ideal curve to facilitate pushing snow like a plow AND picking it up and tossing it. Often times those actions are exclusive in a shovel blade. One design is good for pushing and another design is good for scooping and throwing.

Not to be overlooked is the 46″ fiberglass handle with poly ergo D grip. The D grip is essential in allowing my preferred technique of tossing the snow out of the scoop by releasing my left hand from the shaft as I snap the shovel forward, then pulling it back with my right hand in that D.

Just describing it almost makes me want to go out and shovel. Maybe best of all about these tools, they never fail to start, they don’t require gasoline or electricity, they don’t emit an unpleasant exhaust, and they don’t make near the noise of mechanical snow blowers.

Since the month of March is historically good for one or two big snow storms every year, I think my purchase was made at just the right time. Our local 7-day forecast shows a possibility of a big storm next week. With that ‘backup’ extra shovel I bought, I may even invite Cyndie out to allow her the experience of discovering just how meritorious a design the YO-HO poly snow pusher really is.

This winter has been a real shovel breaker for me. Yesterday it snowed all day. I waited to get out and work on clearing the driveway until 8:30 p.m., hoping it would be closer to the end of accumulating snowfall. Unfortunately for me, by that time we had about 15 inches of snow. It took me 2 hours to get the bulk of the day’s accumulation cleared, and we gained another inch while I was working. None of the city plows had been out yet, so there will be quite a pile to deal with at the end of the driveway this morning. I didn’t see it until I was almost out to the end of my driveway, but last night there was a car stuck in the street just at the edge of our drive. If it isn’t gone when the plow comes by, he won’t be able to clear the snow very well in the street at the end of our driveway. That will probably mean even more shoveling for me.

I wore out my favorite shovel as the metal strip ripped loose and prevented the scoop from sliding well along the asphalt. I may need to modify it by cutting off the remaining metal to at least use the plastic scoop. It isn’t important to me right now that I scrape right down to the pavement. To finish clearing the deep snow last night, I used the shovel that Cyndie purchased a year ago when I mentioned I should get a replacement for my favorite shovel. I could see it was beginning to show wear. The only thing similar about the pusher shovel that Cyndie brought home is that it has a black scoop and a yellow handle. It is metal and MUCH heavier than my perfect snow pusher. I wasn’t previously aware how much of a shovel snob I am. But after trying to do the same job with a different tool, I realized how much the tool I was originally using allowed my technique to work as well as it does.

I also broke my plastic blade shovel that I use on our wood deck, when I took it up on the roof to battle ice dams back in December. So this winter has officially taken out two of our shovels. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I saw a news item that mentioned this winter as our second snowiest to date. I think the record height of the snow piles on either side of our driveway serve as corroboration for that report.

Believe it or not, I have been back on the roof again! Even with all the work I did back in December to get my roof cleaned off, this winter has delivered a maximum dose of ice dam forming weather that has forced me back up there to intervene. This time there wasn’t as much snow as before, but the ice has just grown and grown up there. If it snows much in the near future, I’ll have a real disaster on my hands.

I have resorted to the do-it-yourself ice-melt granules in one of Cyndie’s old nylons. From the ground, I could see it was getting pretty thick on the outside edge, but if I didn’t get up there yesterday, I wouldn’t have discovered that there was already standing water behind the dam. I removed the snow cover from the bottom half of the roof, to minimize the source of additional water from melting snow. After chipping away a little channel, I placed my nylon ice melters in two places. If they turn out to do the job, I’ll be begging for more nylons, because I think my problem may require more intervention than just the one spot on each edge of my roof.

Ultimately, I’m thinking this year’s problem with ice dams is a call for improving the insulation in my attic. Unfortunately, I think it’s about time for new shingles, too.

It’s amazing what materializes out of nothing. It’s like being from Minnesota and talking about the weather with a stranger. From absolutely nothing, comes something. BAM! How about this weather? It sure is something, isn’t it?

Winter is finally here. A hurricane-force winter blast just bombarded our east coast, and dumped troublesome amounts of snow on New York. Shots of buried cars on the un-plowed streets look worse than one of our Minnesota snowfalls. It made me feel I have less to brag about. It got me to wondering about why Minnesota has a reputation for being a place of such extreme winter when other cities get hit just as hard. Then an insight came to me as I was struggling to remove the snow from my roof. The snow was over 3 feet deep in places, and working the shovel through it all revealed it was actually multiple layers from all the storms since before Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, that is one of the reasons it is extreme here.

Now we are under siege from a nasty mix of precipitation that threatens to wreak havoc on all things snow-fun related. It’s the dreaded wintertime melt when temperatures break the barrier of freezing and snow conditions degenerate significantly. This is NOT igloo-friendly weather. The forecast is for rain today. Ugh.

That’ll give people something to talk about.

So much snow, so little time. Because I wasn’t able to finish my igloo on Sunday, I’m chomping at the bit to find a chance to get back at the project. Unfortunately, between the demands of the day job and the busy holiday events schedule, the opportunities for playing with igloo construction look to be few and far between. So, what happens on Monday? Snow, snow, and more snow.

I did sneak out of work a little early yesterday, but the free time which that was supposed to provide was consumed by the long, slow commute home in the storm, and then the hour of shoveling in the driveway. We had about 4 more inches on the ground when I got home and another inch was accumulating while I was shoveling.

I ended up spending extra time on the shoveling project because I needed to do some modifications to the piles lining both sides of the drive. It was time to climb up and push the tops back to flatten them out a bit. There’s always that chance it might snow again. Tomorrow is the first day of winter. I’m already having difficulty throwing the snow over the mountains growing on either side of the driveway.

Meanwhile, that half-built igloo waits just a short distance away, filled with a fresh new blanket of insulating snow. It would have been ideal to have finished building it before this dose of snow. The new snow cover would have looked a lot better over the domed roof of the structure than on the open floor.

Hmm. That reminds me of something…

Happy winter!