Sirocco awakened me at around 6:40 AM, so an early start to the day. Made breakfast for the wife and me then checked the weather report.
The forecast said the winter storm was going to start dumping snow on us starting around 10:00 AM. I figured I’d best get started on clearing the rest of the ice from the driveway before that happened. I was out the door around 7:30 AM, once again ready to do battle with the ice.
Hammering and clearing the broken ice remained a hard task. I think more than anything else the hard part was the having to bend over to break the ice. At different times I squatted but getting back up again was really difficult afterwards.
I worked until 9:00 AM then took a short break. I was most of the way to the end of the driveway at that point and wanted to try to finish. I was running out of steam but made a push to get it all done. I made a discovery around then. If I put the claw of the hammer under the edge of the ice, I could lever it upwards and it would break the ice, usually in nice big pieces. Ultimately though I couldn’t keep going. Just before 10:00 AM I had to stop. The snow was supposed to start soon so I went inside to rest for a bit.
After about 15 minutes I got a second wind. The predicted snow hadn’t started falling so I returned to the battle.
As I made my way to the end of the driveway tragedy occurred. The snow shovel broke. The pan split in half and one half fell to the ground. Consumer tip, kids – don’t buy a plastic snow shovel. Always get metal ones. I kept going, breaking the ice and throwing the pieces as far as I could.
Things went well until I got to the very end of the driveway. There is a hollow spot where the ice pooled. It was much thicker than the rest of the stuff I was breaking up. Smashing it with the hammer didn’t do much to it. The nice thing about physics, though, is that with a sufficient application of force anything will break. I kept pounding on it until it splintered and small pieces started breaking off. Eventually I got enough of it cleared that I could make it out with the car. It was somewhere around 11:20 AM when I finished.
Since we now had a clear path out I took advantage of the lack of snow and went to get a few groceries at the store. I also hit two different hardware stores and the Walmart looking for a new snow shovel. As I suspected, no one had any for sale. Sort of like tryin to get supplies before a hurricane, you need to get them before you need them. (We ordered a new one off Amazon.)
I made it back home, put the groceries away, ate lunch, then took an hour and a half nap. I’m still exhausted, and most of my muscles ache. I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll be feeling better. The predicted snow never arrived but the new forecast is that it will start around 10:00 PM, just in time for me to post this.
Again, I hope all is going well in your neck of the woods, my Hordeling, and you aren’t having to clear ice just to be able to get out of your home.
If you’d like to support my efforts, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum