Today I got to operate my snow thrower for the first time. If you read yesterday's post (and goodness knows I'm not suggesting that anyone should have) you already know that one of our purchases this fall was a snow thrower (called a snow blower by people who live in warm-weather cities and have never used one). Specifically, it's a Craftsman 24-inch 2-stage snow-thrower from Sears, with six forward gears, two reverse gears, an electric starter (for those times when the pull-start just won't cut it), and an overhead-cam gasoline engine that sounds a lot like a chainsaw. Unless the port where the snow come out of gets clogged (which happens every few minutes with snow this wet), in which case it sounds like a chainsaw being strangled by a quilt...
No, I don't have any idea how that would happen, either. But if it ever did, it would sound exactly like the snow thrower getting clogged with snow and ice...
I'm not sure how to explain the sensation of guiding a self-propelled gas-powered machine through the snow and watching as snow cascades merrily out one side and a completely clean path appears underneath it, but I will try: It is cool. And it's only going to get cooler as I get used to adjusting the choke so that the engine doesn't stall out when you hit a really heavy patch of snow...
The only major downside of the morning, in fact, was trying to put fuel in the snow thrower. This is because our recently-acquired gas can is equipped with safety devices to prevent spillage and keep small children from pouring gasoline on themselves. Like most "child-proof" devices, this one works so well that it's extremely difficult even for a grown man (currently in grad school) to get any gas out of it, although I imagine a small child would have have no problems with it. But eventually, I got the idea of pushing the "spout" in as you try to pour, and the rest was easy...
Okay, so far this sounds like the story of a 44-year-old "noob" experiencing his first attempt to clear a driveway since roughly 1971, and his first attempt (ever!) to run a snow thrower. But imagine if I was working a job where I have to be at my desk by a specific hour, but I had to take 40 minutes to fuel the snow thrower, fire up the engine, clear my driveway and sidewalk, dry everything off and put it away before going to work. Imagine if everyone in the office had to do these things, too. Imagine if we also had to get a truck with a snowplow blade on the front to clear the parking lot before we could park in it, or the approach to the loading dock before we could get the trucks in...
Now, I realize that none of these things are novel, let alone surprising, to anyone who lives in a cold climate. I know that anyone who has ever lived in East Lansing longer than I have would have allocated the necessary time to get ready in the morning. My point here is that I DID allow for extra time to clear the driveway, extra time to drive to work very slowly and carefully, even extra time to get from the parking lot to my desk. But I hadn't counted on not being able to figure out how to operate a newfangled gas can...
Showing posts with label Winter Conditons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter Conditons. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Snow Day
It's snowing today in Central Michigan, and if the weather idiots are correct, it should continue to snow until dinnertime tomorrow, with up to 8 inches accumulating on the ground. On the television news they're calling it our first "big" storm of the season, and I suppose they're right. We've only had about 4 inches in the past three weeks -- we could get double that in the next 24 hours. It's a good thing we put out the ice and snow melter crystals this morning before the snow started...
If you're not familiar with this product (and up until now I'd only lived in warm-weather cities; I wasn't myself), the ice and snow melter we're using is a granular agent that keeps the ice and/or snow from sticking to sidewalks, driveways, and other concrete surfaces. It's touted as being more environmentally friendly than the rock salt traditionally used for this purpose, and a small bag of it is enough to cover our sidewalk and front walkway, usually with enough left over to touch up any spots we missed on the first pass. It's easy to use and not too expensive (about $4 a bag, which lasts for about a week so far) -- which is important, since keeping your sidewalk clear is required by a city ordinance...
Clearing the snow is one thing; keeping it clear is quite another. The traditional snow removal tools is a shovel, but shovelling snow is a bad idea if you're a middle-aged man with hypertension; a lot of heart attacks happen each year because men my age and general condition decide that they can still clear the driveway the way they did when they were teenagers. When we decided we were going to move to East Lansing the first thing I put on my shopping list was a snow blower. Little did I know that I'd have to wait almost three months before anyone here started selling them, and another two months before I'd get to use mine...
Assuming that I do, of course. This storm is still just warming up, and there's never any way to tell how much of it will stick and how much will just melt on contact. But the reason I'm blathering on about all of this is simple: snow melter, snow shovels and a snow blower are all things I went 44 years without ever having to purchase, and now I've bought all of them in just a few weeks. Moving to a cold-weather city, most people consider higher heating costs and more warm clothing, but fail to take into account costs like snow melter and gasoline for the snow blower. And I'm not even sure what other costs may present themselves before spring...
Now multiply that by every one of your employees and throw in the costs of winterizing your place of business, whatever it is, and you're starting to get an idea of what it might take to move your business into such a climate. Forget all of the wailing and gnashing you see about "hidden costs" in television commercials and business journals; in business their are ALWAYS going to be hidden costs. Sometimes you find them on your heating bill or the budget for an indoor break area, and sometimes they hit on your liability insurance bill (increased slip-and-fall premium), but they're always going to be there, swirling around outside your window like a fall of snow...
If you're not familiar with this product (and up until now I'd only lived in warm-weather cities; I wasn't myself), the ice and snow melter we're using is a granular agent that keeps the ice and/or snow from sticking to sidewalks, driveways, and other concrete surfaces. It's touted as being more environmentally friendly than the rock salt traditionally used for this purpose, and a small bag of it is enough to cover our sidewalk and front walkway, usually with enough left over to touch up any spots we missed on the first pass. It's easy to use and not too expensive (about $4 a bag, which lasts for about a week so far) -- which is important, since keeping your sidewalk clear is required by a city ordinance...
Clearing the snow is one thing; keeping it clear is quite another. The traditional snow removal tools is a shovel, but shovelling snow is a bad idea if you're a middle-aged man with hypertension; a lot of heart attacks happen each year because men my age and general condition decide that they can still clear the driveway the way they did when they were teenagers. When we decided we were going to move to East Lansing the first thing I put on my shopping list was a snow blower. Little did I know that I'd have to wait almost three months before anyone here started selling them, and another two months before I'd get to use mine...
Assuming that I do, of course. This storm is still just warming up, and there's never any way to tell how much of it will stick and how much will just melt on contact. But the reason I'm blathering on about all of this is simple: snow melter, snow shovels and a snow blower are all things I went 44 years without ever having to purchase, and now I've bought all of them in just a few weeks. Moving to a cold-weather city, most people consider higher heating costs and more warm clothing, but fail to take into account costs like snow melter and gasoline for the snow blower. And I'm not even sure what other costs may present themselves before spring...
Now multiply that by every one of your employees and throw in the costs of winterizing your place of business, whatever it is, and you're starting to get an idea of what it might take to move your business into such a climate. Forget all of the wailing and gnashing you see about "hidden costs" in television commercials and business journals; in business their are ALWAYS going to be hidden costs. Sometimes you find them on your heating bill or the budget for an indoor break area, and sometimes they hit on your liability insurance bill (increased slip-and-fall premium), but they're always going to be there, swirling around outside your window like a fall of snow...
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