Run Off

Terms like "watching the grass grow" usually mean someone is just hanging out, kicked back, and being basically useless. A term that indicates laziness of the highest order. Up our way this winter has quite a few of us are spending more time "watching the ice melt". I am interested not because of my lack of energy, but because I am keenly aware of all that water stored in all that snow. A paticularily hard winter has dumped more than the usual 65" to 70" of snow on us. Here in Acton we are closing in hard on 120" with more sure to come before the robins will be able to wrestle worms out of the ground. This week so far we have seen the thaw break in and water is running like millions of faucets carelessly left open. And because many of the natural channels are blocked by the high banks of snow, this water is finding it's way into homes, garages, plowed parking lots, and school yards.

My garage is definitely vulnerable. Set down into a cut, the banks of snow on each side of the drive have peaked at about 10 feet on each side. The water from both banks is melting into the drive but unable to find it's normal low spot to run out to the road. I am fighting a losing battle to keep it out of the garage. Yesterday I chopped away at one banking till I found dirt. With the squeegee, I pushed the water in that direction in a vain attempt to convince it to move away from the house and down to the road. I became disgusted, gave up and went into the bike shop to catch up on some repairs.

The good news is my efforts were rewarded. When I got home at 7:30 last night, the drive was dry and the garage floor just a tad damp. My digging combined with the day's thaw must have broken something loose and the runoff in front of the house now has found it's way towards the road and away from me and mine. So I stood outside this morning watching the snow as it prepared to begin it's daily melt. I felt good. I had proven that I was, for the moment, smarter than the water.