It snowed again last night. This isn't exactly news for a Thursday in January in the U.P. I'm guessing we got at least a foot of what Sarge refers to as alligator repellent. I got up this morning, looked out at the driveway, and decided that
this was going to The Morning when I finally got the perfect winter snowplowing photograph. Lots of fresh powdery snow and great light: just cloudy enough to keep things from glaring, but still really nice and bright. I was going to position myself so I could catch the grader just as he came around the curve. I got dressed, I put on boots, I was ready. I even kept stepping outside occasionally to listen for the machine. So how did I do?
He did it to me again. Snuck up. I swear I only looked at the computer screen for two seconds and the next thing I knew I heard the beep-beep-beep as he started to back up. Son of a bitch. How does he do it? How can a machine that big also be that quiet?!
It's a mystery.
Seeing just how deep the snow is on the grader makes me realize (again) how lucky we are that the county road commission still does private driveways. It's worth every dime of the annual plowing fee.
The driveway plowing was a program begun by a previous county engineer. It's since been discontinued. I've mentioned before that it's one of those things that's being phased out through attrition. No one can be added, and if you drop off, you're off it forever.
