Wednesday, March 09, 2005

A Love / Hate Relationship

I have dealt with over 30 winters here in Maine. Each one was different, with twists unique to each. Excepting a very few, all brought copious amounts of snow, ice, and frigid temperatures. The Winter of 1978(I think) was one they printed T shirts for. There was the infamous ice storm in the 90's that left us stranded with no electricity for 7 days and average temps around 17'F. Winter is a fact of life here in Maine. Deal with it or move.

That's fine and dandy. Deal with it. Right. I do like the winter. The cold. The snow. Sunny days, the sun dancing off the snowpack, and a bike under my butt, I love cruising the snowmobile trails and lakes. I love picking ice outta my beard. The banks stacked high, houses buried up to the windows in white icing, and dogs chase me as I poke around the back roads after a big blow.

Yeah, I really do like winter in Maine. It's the snow shovel I hate. I particularily hate the snow shovel today. Last night's storm dumped over a foot and the wind blew like Hell. The drifts I woke up to were 5 feet in spots and windpacked. Today really sucked.

Some might contend that I should invest in a plow, a sno-blower, or hire someone to clean me out if I hate the snow shovel so much. And they would be right. I really should find a method of snow removal that is less of a back breaking chore. But, you see, I have a sno-blower. It's broken. I have a plow. It's buried under 8 feet of snow and broken also. I'd hire someone to clean me out, but I'm broke too.

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