And the roads are getting thinner…

Anyone else notice that their road has gotten a lot thinner?  We live on a "school" road  and even with all the attention our road gets a little narrower with each passing fall of snow.  This is exactly the kind of creeping peril that sneaks up on us all until someone remembers that they used to live on a road not a bicycle path. Then we laugh them right out of the neighborhood, it’s the American way.  Or we could complain that the “Town” isn’t doing what it’s supposed to.  

Of course that’s not really fair, at least in our town.  We live in the Township and they are very good about clearing the roads.  I can tell because as soon as it snows the end of my driveway has a huge burm of dirty grey plowed snow to shovel through.  The roads are always cleared and drying quickly though.  It’s just that gradually, storm by storm the plowed snow moves it’s way further and further out into the street.

I think that’s a feature of using plows to clear streets, eventually the plowed snow turns to mostly ice and can’t be moved by even the biggest plows.  Here in the Eastern US that’s usually the time we bring in the bulldozers and back hoes.  If this were Switzerland plows would take a back seat to giant snowblowers and melters.  This is why Swiss streets maintain their basic width even if the embankments can rise as high as 12 feet out in the mountains and country.  That and the Swiss are very serious about cooperating as far as street parking during storms.

The real answer if for me and my neighbors to get our butts out and use our snow blowers and shovels to trim back the plowed snow after each storm.  Just along our street frontage and perhaps along a neighbors property to keep up good relations.  It would also be nice if we dig out our street parking a little more, those coveted parking spaces turn quickly to mounds of immovable ice and compacted snow, which eat plow blades for breakfast.

My blower is out for repair right now, unfortunately I was forced to bring it in just before the latest “big storm.”  Constant stalling and spraying gas everywhere didn’t seem conducive to efficient driveway clearing.  This is why you help out your neighbor every chance you get, it feels good but it also makes them a lot more likely to lend you their snow blower when you’re facing 8 inches of snow in the the driveway armed with only a big serving spoon.

Besides the shrinking roads our roofs are also getting a lot thicker, but that should get a little better by the end of the week.  One of my neighbors was out shoveling off his roof on Valentines day.  His wife was very concerned so he made the ultimate shoveling sacrifice.  What a guy, that’s real love.  The snow has been a lot deeper in my memory, and it’s the rain that comes later to saturate the snow that really busts roofs.  I have my fingers crossed for some warmer weather and the heat turned up to melt some of that snow off.  Of course, my ice-packed gutters are not thanking me for that.

I often wonder if we’re going to see a lot more winters like this one.  Individual weather events, or even whole winters can’t be traced back reliably to climate change, only general trends.  Considering the last few late summer and autumn storms, the increase in snow fall doesn’t seem all that surprising.  Like the roads gradually narrowing climate change sneaks up on you.  No one can point to a snowflake and say ”See that, that there’s Climate change,”  but it doesn’t mean you don’t start thinking about a generator or being a little more diligent about tuning up the snow blower in the late fall.