Wait, back up a bit

Happy Spring! My calendar wouldn't lie to me, would it? I have been waiting to tell this tale to make sure it is officially over. The story began one, of several, snowy mornings. I glanced out the window as our daughter was getting ready to head out to the bus stop, and saw a snowblower much like ours on the side of the road across the street. I figured our neighbor across the way had just maybe gotten fed up and left it there for a break. No, that didn't make any sense, but who was I to question his driveway clearing tactics. Wow, I never realized our snowblowers looked so much alike.

The next time I peered out the window, I saw the man across the street backing out of his driveway. I paused to see if he got out of his car at the end of his driveway to lug his snowblower back to his garage. Hmmm, interesting, he was driving away...and glancing at the snowblower...and giving a quick strange look at my closed garage. Oh...my...goodness! That was our snowblower, at the end of the subtle tracks that led up our driveway to the garage. Lord of the Snow, who you may be familiar with as Lord of the Lawn from previous tales from other seasons, had managed to back his van all the way down the driveway, with the snowblower being pushed right along behind it. Then, after depositing the snowblower in the snowbank across the way, he put the van in drive and left for work.

Hopefully the photo gives some sense of the length of the trip, as well as the steep grade of the driveway. The gutter at the end of the hill must've been exceptionally exciting for old Red the snowblower (and noisy one would think). The view from our front door didn't really do justice as to how wedged into the snow Red was.

After our daughter left, I pondered whether or not my awe at the situation in front of me was "just me". I put in a call to a friend who was able to confirm that this did sound a bit ridiculous. Since I didn't have time to blog that morning, I made a quick Facebook post. the comments that followed provided further proof that this was not a "just me moment". I also sent the picture to my husband with a message asking if he'd noticed anything out of the ordinary when he left for work that day. Apparently he got my email after the one he, and some of his friends, had received from someone who had seen the initial post on Facebook.

He called me, and our conversation went something like this:

Lord of the Snow: You know, I specifically parked the snowblower off to the side a bit, so I'd be sure to see it when I went out to the car.
Me: Seriously? That is doing nothing for your case right now. Didn't you hear anything?
Lord of the Snow: Well, I guess I did hear a little something when I was backing out of the garage, and then another something at the end of the driveway.
Me: Wow.
Lord of the Snow: So was there any damage that you could see?
Me: Um, yeah, if you think I actually took the time to look over the machinery after hauling it back into the garage, you really still don't know me at all.

The story could've ended there, but Red was obviously suffering some anger issues regarding the ordeal, and chose to take them out on the wrong person. Flash forward a blizzard or two, where I found myself out dealing with the driveway. Clunk, a wheel fell off the snowblower. It was almost as if the piece of machinery had been pushed sideways for quite a distance, putting stress on it's parts. I put in a call to the Lord of the Snow, skipping any pleasantries and cutting right to the chase. He asked me if I had happened to notice any of the small pieces that might've fallen off when the wheel fell off. "Um, no" and I was instantly agitated by the suggestion that I should pay more attention to snowblower related details.

The wheel fell off while I was snowplowing two more times before (what I hope was) the end of the season, but never while the Lord was at the helm. Red showed a blatant disregard for who rescued him when he was abused and abandoned. Considering my feelings about the lawnmower, I suppose I would be wise to limit my motorized push machinery interactions to the vacuum cleaner at this point.

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