Snow Blow 2018

Last winter was so much better. I was freshly returned from twenty seven years in Florida and I was kind of looking forward to the change of seasons. The leaves changing and then falling off the trees. The first frost on the lawn. The first snowfall. It had been so long since I had experienced any of that. So it all came to pass, but in moderation. Last winter was probably one of the mildest on record for Chicago and it spoiled me. I don't know what I was thinking, but I expected that it was going to be the norm for now and the future. You know, global warming and all that. While the rest of the planet goes to hell, Chicago would be the one place that climate change would actually make more livable. I prepared for winter last year. I got the warm clothes, I got the tools I'd need. When that first snow started falling I got excited. It was time to break out my new snow blower! Each time it snowed last year, which wasn't often, I ran that snow blower up and down the sidewalks. I even cleaned my neighbor's sidewalks because it was fun.

Funny how what seems like fun can turn into drudgery. On Sunday it snowed overnight, and snowed during the day. More snow is predicted for this week and I'm now over it. I have shoveled the sidewalk, swept the snow off the sidewalk, I have scattered pounds of salt on the sidewalk hoping it would melt the snow as it came down. I have ignored the snow that blows right over the sidewalk I have just cleaned, hoping it would somehow disappear. All because I didn't feel like going into the garage and pulling out that snow blower again. In the end I still had to use the snow blower, and it just wasn't as much fun as last year. Maybe if I get one of those tractors with the plowy, scoopy thing on the front...