A Day Late? F U mother nature!

Mother nature was a day late, or maybe two!  Yesterday afternoon, central NJ got blanketed in about a foot of snow that Santa could most certainly have used to his advantage just one day prior.  There is something about snow and Christmas that seems right.  I say this, but I must preface by adding, I am not a snow person by any means.  I grew up playing hockey, so the cold doesn't really bother me all that badly, but the snow..  Grrrr.  I guess my disdain for it began when  I spent my college years in Victoria's Corner, New Brunswick, Canada.  Annually we would see snowfall that exceeded 12-15 feet, or 3-4 meters for my Canadian and European friends.  That amounts to about 20 one foot snowfalls during the winter months.  It would start in late November and not end until March.  I can remember being on "Snow Detail" one winter.  At New Brunswick Bible Institute, students had to perform "Gratis" as part of the course of study.  It basically was a way for the school to get free labor for all the menial tasks around the campus, like washing dishes, milking the cows, general maintenance, basic custodial, waitstaff in the dining room, and the list goes on.  The school claimed it went a long way to keeping costs of tuition down, which was great for me as I had to pay my own way through college, so I gladly pitched in.  There were some "elite" Gratis jobs, like Audio/Visual, or Yearbook, but 90% of it was down and dirty manual labor on some level.  Being on work crew meant you got to rake leaves in the fall, weed gardens in the spring, and SHOVEL SNOW all winter long.  A winter semester on work crew would see you shovel about 4 times the snow that most people in the world shovel in their lifetime.  On really bad storms, we would pull guys off other Gratis's and arm them with a shovel too!  It got pretty bad at times.  Storms would last for 3 days, even longer, and the shoveling was endless.  I was blessed in my time there with what I considered to be pretty good Gratis postings.  I had custodial  one semester, vacuuming the main office another, dish washing a couple of semesters.  I had clean up in the dairy barn after the milkers were finished, and one semester of dorm bathrooms which was probably was probably my least favorite post, but even that was warm and inside. I thought as I was entering my final year that I would escape the dreaded "Work Crew" post altogether.  Winter semester saw me placed on dairy clean up for the second time.  Two weeks into it, however, I was informed that I was being pulled from dairy and placed on work crew.  One of the guys on work crew had hurt his shoulder and could no longer meet the demands of tossing New Brunswick snow off the sidewalks, porches and doorsteps of the campus.  He was going to take over dairy clean up and I was going to hold down his spot and carry his shovel for the remainder of the semester.  It took me about 3 minutes of shoveling in that first snowstorm to decide I would hate snow for the rest of my life. 

Fast forward to my first home ownership experience.  I decide to buy a house in Sabattus, ME.  Great place really, lots of yard for the dogs, beautiful pond in the back to go for a swim in, wood lined lot with direct access to great hiking, mountain biking and running trails in the Summer and Fall.  In the winter is snowed.  Of the four winters I lived there, I went through dozens of belts on my snow blower.  I actually went through two snow blowers, had to get the driveway paved in order to better deal with the snow, and had a hell of a time keeping up with the endless string of winter storm after winter storm.  It wasn't quite as bad as it was in New Brunswick, but in NB, there was a team of 20-30 guys in their physical prime tackling the job.  In Sabattus, it was me.  And if the Snow blower crapped out, it was a hell of a job to get through the snow at the end of the driveway, that was constantly piled up by the passing plows.  Last time I went to the doctor for a check up he told me I was in excellent health:  great blood pressure, great cholesterol levels, maybe a few lbs over where he would like to see me, but overall excellent, except for one thing: that I had the back of a 70 year old man.   I thank the Maine Department of Transportation for that.

So this storm kind has me a bit ticked off at mother nature.  Funny gal she is eh?  I decided a long time ago that I hate snow, in any amount.  Apologies to the ski and sled enthusiasts, but I just don't need the hassle.  I drive a lot for work, I enjoy walking and jogging on the sidewalks and in the woods, Snow makes all of these difficult.  So I hate snow. Except for Christmas.  On Christmas, snow adds to the wonderful magic of the season.  The rest of the year, screw off.  I have found a solution though to much of my problem.  As I sit and write this in front of a warm fire sipping mid morning coffee, 10 Hispanic men (I mean nothing by that by the way, its just the truth) are out shoveling my driveway and walk way and clearing the sidewalk in the neighborhood.  I will thank them when they are finished.