Last weekend we had our first snow of the year - okay, the year is not even 2 weeks old yet. The only other snow this winter was very light and mostly melted before we woke up.
When husband went out to work and my time was my own, in winter I would plan trips to clients on days it was not snowing and stay in the house when it did and get all sorts of things done with the time I was “stuck” in the house. No more.
My husband has become terrified of snow storms. In the past he did not particularly like them, but now he is terrified.
When we first moved into the house we were (relatively) young and had a driveway which was one car wide and 2 cars long, so we would park the two cars in line with each other, towards the bottom of the driveway and clean the snow behind the back car and between the two, and a path to the cars - no problem. We had a snow blower, but rarely used it.
After living in this house awhile we realized that we needed to be able to drive either car out of the driveway and we could not park either in the street and figure they would survive (we lost 2 side mirrors on the car we had in the street from the cars driving past - over the speed limit). So we had a semi-circular drive put in. Understand, our property is not big enough for same, so we now have about 90% of the front of our house paved - which means that any snow which is cleared off the driveway has to go onto the 10% of the front.
At first we dealt with the snow the easy way. I had a small 4 wheel drive SUV and he had an all wheel drive van, and the snow was just about never, if ever over, say 8 inches at a time - mostly less, so we did not clear the snow and just drove through it.
Then came the year we were snowed out of the house - yes, snowed out. We left on a trip to Williamsburg, VA in early December. At home there was to be light flurries so we thought nothing of going away. While enroute we heard about the snow falling at home and it was getting worse and worse. Not wanting to go back and drive in the snow - we drove on. While in Virginia we kept trying to find out about the snow back home. At that time the Internet was relatively new, but the hotel did have wifi, and we checked the home television stations’ and the home local newspaper’s website. The local paper from home was showing interesting photos of the midwest not home! I tried calling my sister - she said it varies all over the area. I tried calling my next door neighbor, an older woman, she said that she had not been out and didn’t know it snowed a lot. We tend to arrive home at night when we travel and were concerned, since a foot plus of snow was being mentioned, about if we would arrive home and not be able to get into the house. We were to stay Monday night in Pennsylvania on the way home. I suggested to husband that he call into work and extend his time off a day. This allowed us to stay in Pennsylvania an extra day - they were saying that Monday and Tuesday were to be warm and we hoped the snow would melt - as well as we could come home in the afternoon and have a chance at dealing with the snow. It worked. There was still a lot of snow, but with the help of all wheel drive, we were able to drive up the driveway.
Husband never wanted this problem again and we made arrangements with our gardener to clear the snow for us in winter. When he left his job and we could not afford the gardener, we hired his former secretary’s brother in law who was also a gardener, to cut the grass (never wanted the rest of the gardening work done anyway, but our original gardener would not come unless he did what he wanted) and clear the snow. Worked great until he “sold us” to someone else.
The new gardener was fine for a year or so. Then a few years ago, we started getting snow such as rarely saw here. Record breaking snow over and over again. The first storm hit. We waited for our driveway to be cleared. No one came. We called - the phone number was shut off. We finally found out that the gardener had gone home to Ecuador for the winter! He called us from there and said that someone would be here to clear the snow - they never came and husband’s fear started.
He went on Craig’s list and finally managed to get someone to come and deal with our snow. By that time the snow had frozen. The fellow had a plastic shovel and it was not enough to even break through. We lent him our metal shovel (which will never be the same again). Still problems. Thanks to someone passing by with a plow on their truck who saw the problem and helped, the snow was broken through enough for the fellow to clear it.
The next storm came - a 2 day storm with about as much snow. The fellow could not come and husband went back to Craig’s list. The fellow who came this time came with his wife and teenage son. They came between the two days of the storm while there was a lull to make it easier. They brought one shovel and borrowed one of ours - the metal one, of course that cannot be replaced. They wanted coffee and were amazed that I had none in the house - cocoa was next suggested by them - none here either. I offered tea - not wanted. At the end of working he asked for half the money, I figured we had nothing to lose as they had done half the work and we paid them. After we realized that they had taken our shovel. The rest of the storm came, luckily less than the first part and much less than predicted. The fellow said he would come - and didn’t - ditto a couple of times. Then he came at 11 pm, said he was going for coffee and would be back to work - didn’t come. We cleared the snow ourselves. Now we had to get the snow shovel back - it took many calls and threats, but finally it appeared on the side of the house. Some how we dealt with the snow the rest of the winter - several big storms spread out as we were never able to find anyone again to clear the snow.
The following winter husband contacted the first fellow early in the season before there was snow, but he was no longer doing snow clearance. Husband finally found a landscaper who did residential snow removal and we signed a contract with him - for big prices. His prices started at $100 and went to $175 depending on the amount of snow. Beyond our budget, but what could we do. Husband was in a constant state of nervousness waiting for the storm to come and then waiting for the crew to come and clear it. Then again, the crew would come too early - often before the snow stopped falling and before the plows were done throwing snow back into our two driveway cuts. If they cleared the driveway and we needed them back, even if just to clear what the plow through back, it was an extra fee. To add fun to all of this, a neighbor 2 houses away had an arrangement with the neighbor between to clear her driveway in exchange for parking one of their extra cars on her driveway and one in front of their house (they have 5 cars with a one car driveway, as they have 3 adult children living at home). The son who parked in front of her house did the work. He would clear everything and throw it in the street in front of our driveway and we would have to go out and clear the cut - or pay to have it done. I finally had enough and called his mom and complained the winter before the house between was sold and we did not have to deal with him any more.
Understand, when I am saying record setting storms, we were getting storms that were in the top 10 in size for the area or new number one storms consistently over 2 -3 years - sometimes every other day - it would snow, it would be clear, we would go out to the post office and run errands. The next day it would snow again and repeat. It was so confusing that I managed to make more than the 6 withdrawals we are allowed from our savings account (had to pay for the snow clearing) and was charged a fee, which I managed to get waived. In addition we have had abnormally cold temperatures.
This year the landscaper who was clearing our snow sent husband an email that he was no longer doing any residential snow removal - panic set in. We could find no one else. Husband decided to buy a new, lighter, smaller snow blower so we could do the work. Our problem with same over the years is that we have to clear a path to the backyard shed to get the snow blower out. We figured with the smaller blower we would get a small shed and put it in front of the side door and only need to get there. Well, we bought the snow blower, but it was too late in the season to buy the shed. So we have the snow blower in the corner of the garage - just inside the door and we have to shovel to there.
Last Saturday night we were to have 2-4 inches of snow. Husband was going crazy. In the middle of the storm - which was definitely going to be more than they said - there was a lull. Husband has had a terrible cold these past few weeks. I went out and shoveled the way to the garage, as well as across the front of the garage door and around to the side door, on the logic that there would be less snow to deal with later to get to the garage. This in the end did not do much, but it made him feel better. Our area got the highest snow of the county (the county east of us got much more) and we cleared it up in 40 minutes. Luckily we are having warmer days and other than snow plowed or pushed into piles, much of it is melted.
He is still concerned about “a big one”, but at least we know we have a half a chance. He has agreed that if we need to we will clear part and come in and rest than do more and that he may need to let me run the snow blower for awhile.
So most of the week was involved with getting him ready for the snow, watching it snow, and clearing the snow.
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
First -have you done one thing - and kept doing it?
Be honest - are your Christmas decorations still up? Ours are. We put our decorations up late and tend to leave them up a little later. Of course we would not dream of taking them down before the twelfth day of Christmas (Three Kings Day, Ephiphany, Little Christmas, Orthodox Christmas, it has many names). But even that seems too early for us. We picked the 3rd Monday of January as when we start to take down the decorations.
Set a specific date (calender date or such as ours - by the day) to start taking down your decorations and have what you will store them in available when you start.
I have the boxes in the basement and will bring them up. I tend to take the decorations down opposite to how I normally put them up - trees first, then decorations, then my teddy bear decorations. They all have assigned boxes to be stored in.
Our outside decorations will come down early this year as we are having a warm spell and the snow has melted - we plan to take the lights on the bushes down tomorrow and store them away while we can.
So make your plans and get ready to take down your decorations - then again, there is one house we pass just about daily that always has its outside Christmas decorations up - lots of them - and then gets turned on in season - it does look odd though in July!
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