Shovel It
Minneapolis is just emerging from its first major snowstorm of the season. I haven't checked official figures but it looks like there are somewhere bettween ten and twelve inches of snow in my yard.
I thought I handled it well. I got milk and bread and one or two other creature comforts the night before it started, and the first morning (it's been snowing for two days) I even shovelled the path between my back door and the garage. As an act of courtesy to the mailman I also shovelled the path across my front lawn that he usually takes.
I mean, I was A GOOD CITIZEN.
So imagine my consternation when I received a recorded phone call from the metroplitan powers that be, informing me that the city had declared a snow emergency and I had better get back out there and shovel the sidewalk in front of the house too.
Shovel the sidewalk? What, they can't walk in the street?
Then I remembered someone telling me the city fines folks who dont' do all the snow removal around their homes. So I shvelled the sidewalk. A lot of it. I cleared a path three feet wide and - oh, I don't know, but really, really long.
Later I told a friend about the phone call. "Oh, every household in the city got that call," she said, "even people living in condos. They do it all the time."
They never do that in New York. I lived in Queens during the Winter of the Thirteen Blizzards and I never once got a call.
I mean, come on. How would any self-respecting New Yorker respond?
"Hey shovel THIS, pal!"
Oh, I miss the East Coast.....
I thought I handled it well. I got milk and bread and one or two other creature comforts the night before it started, and the first morning (it's been snowing for two days) I even shovelled the path between my back door and the garage. As an act of courtesy to the mailman I also shovelled the path across my front lawn that he usually takes.
I mean, I was A GOOD CITIZEN.
So imagine my consternation when I received a recorded phone call from the metroplitan powers that be, informing me that the city had declared a snow emergency and I had better get back out there and shovel the sidewalk in front of the house too.
Shovel the sidewalk? What, they can't walk in the street?
Then I remembered someone telling me the city fines folks who dont' do all the snow removal around their homes. So I shvelled the sidewalk. A lot of it. I cleared a path three feet wide and - oh, I don't know, but really, really long.
Later I told a friend about the phone call. "Oh, every household in the city got that call," she said, "even people living in condos. They do it all the time."
They never do that in New York. I lived in Queens during the Winter of the Thirteen Blizzards and I never once got a call.
I mean, come on. How would any self-respecting New Yorker respond?
"Hey shovel THIS, pal!"
Oh, I miss the East Coast.....
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