blow me down

So, it snowed. For real. Snowed like the weather just got the memo that it's January.

{It's pretty awesome.}



Which means snow needed to be removed from driveways and sidewalks and such.

I headed out to the garage, grabbed the snow shovel, and decided to start with the driveway. Now, let it be known that our driveway is small. Like, small. It's not terribly wide; just barely fits two cars side by side. It's not terribly long; one regular size vehicle won't be hit by passing traffic, but that's about it. We do have a fair amount of sidewalk that needs to be cleared. And a really small patio area. But really, it's not much to shovel.

Our neighbor has an even smaller driveway than we do. And absolutely no sidewalk/patio/other area that needs to have snow cleared away. And he has a snow blower. Not just a snow blower, but a superdeluxe snow blower, with a little plastic enclosure that attaches to the handle to stop the blowing snow from hitting him. It looks kind of like the Pope-mobile. But a snow blower.

So me and my silly, old-fashioned shovel take to the driveway, at the exact same time that Neighbor tries to start up his snow blower. And it makes a tremendous racket, and expels more than a few fumes, and it stops.

And I keep shoveling.

And Neighbor tries again. And there's more racket and fumes, and it runs for a few second and stops.

And I keep shoveling.

And we play this game for a bit until he finally gets the thing going. So I'm now half way done clearing my driveway (with a shovel) and he's making a racket and spewing exhaust and blowing snow. (Without any snow actually touching him, because of the Pope-mobile option.) And I move on to the sidewalks. Then the patio. Then the sidewalks in the front of the house. And then I'm all done.

And Neighbor is still trying to clear the snow from his tiny little driveway with his big ol' snow blower.

And the next day, as I was leaving to get grocery, I couldn't help but notice that my driveway looked better. Clearer. More even (I guess that's the word).

And I'm not altogether sure what my actual point is, here. Maybe just, um, when you have the world's smallest driveway and nothing else, do you really even need a snow blower? Or is it just a "guy thing?"

Because, well Neighbor (guy), your snow blown driveway was out-cleared by a girl using a shovel.

So there.