Monday, December 05, 2005

Okay, We Give In

Last year's snow. What can I say? There was a lot of it. A lot. Yet my husband and I, in good proto-SFNE fashion, shoveled our driveway ourselves, as we have every winter since we moved here. (Granted, we used those curvy ergonomic shovels--I wouldn't use anything else.) It was a lot of work. A lot. But it was exercise, and we felt rightfully proud of our achievement. Until the next snowfall.

This year is already different. Jim hurt his back in June, but despite physical therapy, massage, miles and miles of walking, hours of exercises (he's amazingly dedicated--much better than I would be), his back isn't where it was at summer's start. The last thing I wanted was (a) for him to hurt his back again shoveling or (b) for me to hurt my back doing all the shoveling by myself. Yesterday's snow wasn't much--a few inches really. Easy for the ergonomic shovels. In fact, we didn't even need to shovel in the morning; we just drove right out of our space in the Subaru, sans shoveling...

right to our local Ace Hardware store, where they were holding an electric Toro Snowthrower for us. (And yes, in good New England frugal fashion, we paid less than MSRP.) We bought it (it's small and light enough to throw into the rear compartment of an Outback wagon) and brought it home. Jim tried it out and declared it a success.

So we won't be pulling out the snow shovels much this winter, except for the side porch and the steps, I guess. But I'd rather my husband have a healthy back than let a misplaced sense of pride force him into more pain. At which point we'd probably have gone out and bought the thing anyway. But dealing with the snow in your own way is still SFNE, isn't it?

4 Comments:

Blogger Tish Grier said...

Congrats on the snow blower! good investment up here! There's nothing less manly (or womanly) than being in pain when you don't have to be.

One thing I love about snow in New England is that nobody makes a big deal out of it until there's about a foot of it on the ground. When I lived in 'Jersey, two inches was enough for a serious freak-out and massive traffic jams. Yesterday, just the usual "ah, snow. what a pain in the ass," comments and then it was business as usual.

And it was really funny watching the guys at the liquor store move the coolers from the old store to the new one--in the snow. How N.E. is that?!?

2:17 PM  
Blogger Alison Rose said...

Too true! Having grown up in and lived a good portion of my adult life in Virginia, it's amazing how people will freak out at a few flakes.

On the up side, the best birthday present I ever got as a child was a birthday-night snowfall on a Sunday, followed by an entire week off of school. The benefits of a city (Virginia Beach) with too few snowplows!

4:37 AM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

hahaha, I'm a snow snob. I pay someone to plow my driveway! hahahhaa. How FNE is that?!?!?!? :)

4:10 PM  
Blogger Alison Rose said...

Everyone has a how-I-deal-with-snow story! I love it!

I will be glad to provide reviews once the real snow starts falling. I used an electric lawn mower in Virginia for years and it was totally trouble free (except when I mowed over the extension cord, of course!), so I'm hoping it will be a similar trouble-free experience.

5:41 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home