Shovelling the snow, mowing the lawn, cleaning the garage and taking out the garbage; all of these things are a man's job. Even as a strong woman, working outside the home doing "manly" work in a "man's world" until just recently because of my mat leave, I still do believe that shoveling the snow is a man's job. No shame in that. Yes I have the strength to push a snowblower (that I wish I owned); yes I have the strength to clear 30 cm of snow off my SUV and driveway though it might take an hour or two. But yes, I believe it is a job for my husband yet unfortunately he is miles away in a different climate zone and I miss him dearly for that.
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| Kids Snow Sculptures on a good day |
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| My backyard, imagine the driveway! |
For the record though, the next photo is one I borrowed from a friend. Her snow pile she had to shovel all by herself was 7 feet tall (in Ottawa). I really shouldn't be that mad about my snowbanks 3 feet high, but I was mad. Anyway I did not take a photograph of my driveway, but here is her photo for dramatic effect...
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| Her snowbanks 7 feet high! |
A Mother's Help
This morning while I was out with my son at Art class, I suppose the friendly snowplow guy from the city cleared our long street and just decided to dump everything from the entire street at the end of my driveway. Arrrrggggggh! In reality, I suppose it's because we live near the end of the cul-de-sac and just at the start of the curve tangent, which magically causes the long shovel to tip just enough to dump everything right at my driveway and at nobody else's on the whole street. I would like to believe that because there cannot be a person evil enough in the whole world to do that on purpose every snowfall.
Anywayz I could've drove right over it but I felt that I really need to remove the snow before I compacted it with my car and then it would likely turn to ice if I just went into the house to do my work in the kitchen and come out later. I parked my car on my neighbor's driveway and my mom who was visiting me from out of town, jumped out of the car to help me move out the bales of snow together. We did not ask my dad to come out out because we figured he was happy with baby Mary (and he is a senior citizen officially and it is hard work for him though he won't admit it). It was hard work for my mom too, but I think it was awesome that she could help me with that. Very endearing.
Stick it to the Man
I was doing fine, until I suddenly got super mad at the city and I totally snapped cuz I was so mad about moving a thousand pounds of snow off the end of my driveway my dad and I already shovelled this morning. I started shouting into the street and instead of using my energy to lift bales of heavy snow higher onto the snowbanks of my driveway I just started dumping snow into the street and I even picked up giant snow boulders (and smaller snow balls) and just started throwing everything onto the street. I shouted really loud and I'm pretty sure everyone in the world heard me, "I pay my taxes! This is so wrong. I'm calling the city right now!!" Then I started jumping up and down on the piles of snow to make them smaller until I fell on my butt in the slush and my mom and to help me out and tell me to stop acting like a child.
Well I felt really good after I got that temper out of my system. Fortunately or unfortunately though, the neighbor across from my house was just driving home so he probably saw a crazy woman throwing snow back onto street. My other neighbor with the big shovel attached to his truck also drove up and just pushed everything away in about four hydraulic lifts. Wow I need to get me one of those trucks! I said thanks and waved and my mom and I calmly finished the rest of the driveway, but wow.... that was one hell of a morning. I can also say I know what it feels like to have a temper tantrum, like a three year old, it was the only natural reaction I could have to this scenario at that time.
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