Snowfall and Bad Timing

[jamesq]

On Tuesday, the city put up a bunch of street-cleaning - do not park signs on my block. I don't know if we were simply scheduled to have the giant berms of snow removed, or if enough people complained, but they scheduled it.

How bad was it? Cars were routinely getting stuck in the soft slush or ice pits, or bottoming their cars out in the ruts. I nearly got stuck a few times. I know to rock my car back and forth, rather than spin my tires, so I got out on those occasions. Still, driving and hearing one of your bumpers impact the hard-packed ice surface as you bounce through the ice potholes is not fun even if you do know how to drive.

This is a big part of the reason why I try not to drive the car much in winter.

Anyway, Wednesday morning came and I exit the house to see that nosarious' car is still parked in front of the house and there is a lineup of dump trucks waiting down the street. I let him know to move his car and he takes it down to the local supermarket parking lot. He discovered two things there:

1. Everyone on the street had the same idea.
   
2. He was the only one to ask permission at the store.

Anyway, another tenant noted that despite being in giant trucks with giant wheels, operated by allegedly professional drivers, they too were getting stuck in the street. Clearly something needed to be done, and by good, these trucks (and the snow removal machine, which was also parked down the street) were here to do it.

Or they would have, if it wasn't simultaneously snowing Wednesday morning. So basically, they all came to my block, ready and able to clear away all the berms, and at the last possible instant, they got called away to plow more important roads.

The lesson here is clear: my street will get cleared just as soon as we get four weeks with no snow. Which tells me it isn't getting done, because four weeks without snow has a name around these parts: June.

Comments

[ishansonofbrand.livejournal.com]

They came to our street in the far, far south this past Saturday. It was funny watching the grater getting stuck in the sand like snow in front of our house. We're down in MacKenzie Lake, or Mount Mackenzie depending on how you look at it, in one of the crescents. The only way I have been able to get out and get going is that I have AWD on my CrossOver. They didn't really do it smartly. They had one end blocked off with a 10ft high pile of snow being packed in the dump trucks and was ploughing the other end. When we tried to get out we had to jump up on the sidewalk to get around the grater. Felt mildly bad about that.

We haven't tried to get my Wife's car out yet. The roads are still kinda rutted and slippery.