Whew. I was just outside, enjoying the beautiful winter sun, and chipping away at the disaster that I call my driveway. Whilst out there, I thought that I might write about it. Sure, not the most interesting subject matter, but then, you don’t have to read it.
Basically, the situation is this: I have barely ever shoveled the driveway this year, and we’ve had a ton of snow. My wife and I both drive AWD Subarus, so getting in and out of the driveway hasn’t really been a problem. Even sitting low like they do, the ol’ girls still have traction like a proverbial mountain goat. The rally-winning reputation is well-earned. I’m sure driving talent like Petter Solberg helped a lot, too, but us everyday folks don’t need to drive like Solberg (even if some of us would like to imagine that we can) to appreciate The Beauty of All Wheel Drive™. Now, combine that with my near-legendary laziness, working full-time, along with a few other issues (that I won’t get into here), and you have a recipe for driveway disaster.
I let it pile up and pile up, all the while just continuing to drive over the snow, packing it down nice and hard along two narrow humps, leaving everything else a mess of slush, snow and ice. My wife was starting to get a little annoyed by the situation, but in typical fashion, I continued to not give a rat’s ass. I went out and did only the bare minimum that my conscience would allow, and usually only if my wife went out to start shoveling, or if we really got whomped with wintry precipitation. I know; I’m a bastard, but I didn’t feel like one until the other night when my parents came over. My dad didn’t say anything, but I did ask if he had difficulty getting in the driveway, and it was then he admitted to getting stuck.
He got stuck. In my driveway. In a front wheel drive minivan with top-rated snow tires on. That’s when it hit me, that I was, in fact a jackass for not shoveling more. I mean, my mother-in-law had already started refusing to pull in the driveway for fear of being mired in the icy bog, but somehow, I didn’t let that bother me. I think I rationalised it as her just being a bit timid about her driving skills, or her car, or whatever. That part probably makes me more of an arsehat, really, than the fact that I was negligent about it in the first place.
So there you have it, I was motivated by guilt to go out and do something about the problem. Now that I’m on a little vacation of sorts, I have all kinds of time to do things, and more reason than ever to need to get out and exercise a bit. Zero excuses. Time to get it done.
I started two days ago, around 3:15 in the afternoon, thinking that I’d have it done before my wife came home from work that day. I guess I didn’t realise just how bad it was out there. She was late coming home, and I’d only barely managed to scratch the surface. It was that bad. Granted, the graders and snowbank-removal equipment had been by the night before, mangling the end of the drive with hard packed ice chunk soup, but I still had no idea how long it would actually take. I’m not trying to bring it down to bare asphalt or anything either, I just wanted people to not be afraid they’d need to call a tow truck if they came to visit. Not that we get many visitors, but that’s not really the point here, now is it.
I took yesterday off from my travails because I was sore, over-tired, and just generally feeling like a sack of dung. Possibly the sum of the flabby interest I’ve earned on my lazy account, compounded daily. Today, I felt just as rotten, which I’m sure had nothing whatsoever to do with overeating at a greasy diner late last night, but my determination had returned at any rate, so I attacked it again. I must say, progress is being made. Last night, I got in the car a few times and noticed how it was listing at a pretty good pitch, the result of my efforts the day prior, to only one side of the drive. Today, I tried to even the slope off a bit on the other side, which was much more work. That side had more packed ice and snow, but it needed to go, so I worked relentlessly. I’m not even done yet, but it’s much better than it was. I will take another crack at it, maybe come back to it tomorrow or Saturday, after I’ve had another break.
Despite how rotten it sounds to do, I can’t say I minded doing it. It was a beautiful day out, and it gave me some time to appreciate the winter outdoors. It also gave me time to think. Whenever I do manual labour, I always set my mind free to wander. Sometimes I use the time creatively, or other times, just to work out issues in my head, have a conversation with myself, imaginary ones with others, stuff like that. In fact, while I was out there, I came up with an idea for another post. I think I’ll jot down the idea for draft, and flesh it out more tomorrow.
Posted by Ron as Home Sweet Home, Work at 3:12 PM UTC
