Take this snow and shovel it!

I have snow fatigue. I am so sick of snow. We got approximately 4 gajillion inches of snow yesterday, on top of the 8 quatrillion inches we got last week. The difference is that last week's snow was very cold and light. Yesterday's snow was heavy and wet and slushy and very, very hard to shovel.

What I realized last night, as Brock and I were shoveling our driveway (which will hold four to six cars on a nice, dry, snow-free day) at 9:30, is that we are the only ones of our immediate neighbors who do not have a) a snow blower or b) a standing arrangement with someone who has a snow blower. Nobody else was out shoveling at 9:30, and their driveways were all lovely and clear. That was really sad. I know most of our neighbors are like twice our age, and it makes sense for them to have snow blowers, and that we are young and should embrace the fact that we're physically able to get out and shovel snow like that. But last night I had serious snow blower envy.

The other thing I realized last night is that today's kids are apparently lazy. Or maybe their allowances are too high. Because I remember back in the good ol' days, when I was growing up, and enterprising young people from throughout the neighborhood would come by our house and ask my parents if they could mow the lawn (if it was summer) or shovel the driveway (if it was winter). I seem to remember that they never asked for more than about $10 for this service. Those young people probably grew up to be highly successful owners of landscape/snow removal firms.

We have had FEET of snow this year. Not once has any kid come by my house to ask if I want my driveway shoveled. And what the kids who aren't coming by don't know is that I would pay them WAY more than $10 to do it. In fact, in the four years we have lived in our house, there have only been two times when somebody offered to shovel our driveway for a fee. And both times, we paid for it. So...if you're an entrepreneurial 12-year-old in my neighborhood and you're reading this, PLEASE stop by the next time it snows a lot. You will make more money shoveling our driveway than you would staying home to play Guitar Hero III. In fact, you will also get exercise. So really, our driveway has the power to fight childhood obesity AND the rumored impending economic crisis. But that power is currently going to waste, because nobody ever comes by and offers to shovel our driveway!!

I will say that one of our snow blower-wielding neighbors did come over and clear our driveway and walks while we were out of town over New Year's. Because (as noted above) all of our neighbors seem to have snow blowers, we're still not sure who did it. If I ever find out, I will make that person cookies...because I can't think of anything worse than coming home after a snowy, awful 7-hour drive to find out you can't get the car in the garage. So thank you, anonymous neighbor, for that. And if you want to come forward the next time there's a significant snowfall and repeat the act of kindness, I will totally make you a double batch.

I just needed to rant about snow. I'm over it.