So, we live at the bottom of a hill (my last driveway was uphill and I would sometimes have to get a running start in my neighbor’s driveway across the street to get up the hill when it was icy- before I learned about low gear LOL). Anyway, we decided that it was time to not be at the mercy of the plow anymore. Plus, I don’t want to get sued. Because it is the responsibility of the property owner to clear snow and ice and if someone falls they can sue you. It varies by city, but you usually have 24 hours after the snow has stopped to clear the ice and snow (or somewhere it was within 6 hours of daylight after the snow has stopped falling). And if you live with a city sidewalk in front of you, it’s usually your civic duty to clear it. They can sue you for not clearing wet leaves too. Anyway, I don’t want the mailman or UPS guy to fall. Now the solicitors on the other hand can bite it, and they couldn’t sue because they would be uninvited.

Anyway, I went out this morning and tracked down a snow blower. I had already used Home Depot’s online product finder before I left to find that Home Depot didn’t have any suitable ones in stock. So I went to Lowe’s first. They had none. Then I went to this local place and they had a power shovel and a bunch of gas snowblowers starting at $699. I didn’t want a gas snow blower because we’d have to keep it in the garage year-round and that would take up too much space. Plus, I didn’t want to worry about keeping gas and oil around to mix to use it. I went to the grocery store for some waffle mix (I bought a circus waffle maker at Tuesday Morning between hardware stores while I was out and I made waffles for breakfast this morning after I got back). Then I went to this other independent hardware stores and they had none- not even a spot where they used to be, but were sold out. However, they did have a nice LGB Train layout by the Christmas trees and they had a couple of the same trains and cars I have.

Finally, I decided I would go back to local store #1 and just get the power shovel and call it a day. Well, when I got there, I saw they had the electric snow blower I was looking for after all the gas blowers had cleared out. I ended up paying a $50 premium to the local store over what I would have paid at Home Depot, but it’s a local store and they had them in stock and Home Depot didn’t. So now check out my clean driveway!