Like a well oiled machine, the supervisor & I, honed by many performances this season, brought the dreaded 50-yard long driveway to its knees in we believe less than an hour and a half this morning.

The 243rd blizzard of the season arrived late to Vacationland USA. No snow all day yesterday (though it had been predicted) – but the wind did HOWL. Some time after dark, we peaked out a shroud encrusted window and noticed the little white darlings were beginning to fall from the sky. By this morning, it appeared the predicted 8” had fully arrived. It’s garbage day – we had to figure a way to get the stuff to the end of the driveway by 7:30, the usual pick up time. We waited for daylight so we could see what we were up against. TV was highlighting the nearly 20” of snow smothering the Twin Cities’ western suburbs. Our slab was bare on the north side, but had about a two-foot drift covering the rest of it.

The supervisor and I grabbed our three shovels (we specialize, depending on conditions) and plowed our way out the front door. Once the porch was clear, the supervisor headed down the driveway, shoveling a shovel-wide path. Now we could tell that the driveway had a uniform snow depth of 8-10″ for its entire length.  She got about ¾ of a way down when she decided she would take a shoveling break to haul the garbage down. She made it. When we got to the road, no sign of any tire tracks, so no newspaper. Just as well, the deliverer would have got stuck. The snow plow had not been through yet, and the road was covered by a foot of undulating snow.

[Pardon me. Phone calls. First Dangerous Dan, our next door neighbor. He has fled to Southern California for many years – except this one. He just wanted to tell us he has never seen anything like this winter – as he’s waiting patiently to be plowed out, yet again. Then Brother Cam, in Mounds View. He was on his way to a parts store. For the second time this winter, he broke the shear pin on his snow blower – never happened in the previous hundred years he’s owned the thing.]

Shortly after we finished, the snow plow came through (of course). The supervisor raced out to save the garbage cans. She did – and the snow plow driver cleared the pile he had just made at the end of the driveway for her. While she was out there, the garbage man arrived – @ 8:15, only 45 minutes late. Not bad. He said he had to skip around on his route to only go down the roads that had been plowed. So, the super was able to bring the cans back in.

Still snowing and windy at now 1:30 pm. Sounds like a good time for a nap. (I suppose I should mention another snow “event” is forecast for this Sunday, and again for the middle of next week. Super Fans Bob and Vivian Annen, possibly in anticipation of such, e-mailed today that they have signed up for three months next winter at the condo where they’re staying now in Sarasota. They like it there!)

The current event is over.  The road side deck had at least a foot of snow on it when I went out to shovel it at 5:00.  On the lakeside, wind and snow created some interesting drifts – kind of like living next to the ocean:

The aftermath:

From the Echo: