{"id":48343,"date":"2023-12-15T06:34:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T19:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=48343"},"modified":"2023-12-15T06:34:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T19:34:47","slug":"diary-of-a-snow-shoveller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=48343","title":{"rendered":"Diary Of A Snow Shoveller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-48344\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Snowed_In-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"Snowed In\" width=\"866\" height=\"684\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Snowed_In-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Snowed_In.jpg 588w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Moved to North Dakota this fall. We heard that summers are fun and winter is beautiful. We think there is no more beautiful a place in the whole world!<\/p>\n<p>December 8 &#8211; 6:00 PM It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses print. So romantic, we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!<\/p>\n<p>December 9th<br \/>\nWe woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the whole world? Moving here was the best idea I&#8217;ve ever had! Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks.<br \/>\nThis afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life!<\/p>\n<p>December 12th<br \/>\nThe sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment! My neighbor tells me not to worry- we&#8217;ll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we&#8217;ll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I&#8217;ll never want to see snow again. I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s possible. Bob is such a nice man, I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s our neighbor.<\/p>\n<p>December 14th<br \/>\nSnow, lovely snow! 8 inches last night. The temperature dropped to -20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life! The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I didn&#8217;t realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I&#8217;ll certainly get back in shape this way. I wish I wouldn&#8217;t huff and puff so.<\/p>\n<p>December 15th<br \/>\n20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4&#215;4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife&#8217;s car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer. The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that&#8217;s silly. We aren&#8217;t in Alaska, after all.<\/p>\n<p>December 16th<br \/>\nIce storm this morning. Fell on my ass on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like hell. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think was very cruel.<\/p>\n<p>December 17th<br \/>\nStill way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should&#8217;ve bought a wood stove, but won&#8217;t admit it to her. God! I hate it when she&#8217;s right. I can&#8217;t believe I&#8217;m freezing to death in my own living room.<\/p>\n<p>December 20th<br \/>\nElectricity&#8217;s back on, but had another 14 inches of the damn stuff last night. More shoveling! Took all day. The damn snowplow came by twice. Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but. they said they&#8217;re too busy playing hockey. I think they&#8217;re lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they&#8217;re out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they&#8217;re lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he&#8217;s lying.<\/p>\n<p>December 22th<br \/>\nBob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white shit fell today, and it&#8217;s so cold, it probably won&#8217;t melt till August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to piss. By the time I got undressed, pissed and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob-who has a plow on his truck-for the rest of the winter, but he says he&#8217;s too busy. I think the asshole is lying.<\/p>\n<p>December 23th<br \/>\nOnly 2 inches of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she, nuts?!! Why didn&#8217;t she tell me to do that a month ago. She says she did but I think she&#8217;s lying.<\/p>\n<p>December 24th<br \/>\n6 inches &#8211; Snow packed so hard by snowplow, l broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the son of a bitch who drives that snow plow, I&#8217;ll drag him through the snow by his balls and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling, and then he comes down the street&#8230;at a 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I&#8217;ve just been! Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents&#8230;but I was too busy watching for the damn snowplow.<\/p>\n<p>December 25th<br \/>\nMerry f&#8212;ing Christmas! 20 more inches of the damn slop tonight &#8211; snowed in. The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. God, I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she&#8217;s a fricking idiot. If I have to watch &#8220;It&#8217;s A Wonderful Life&#8221; one more time, I&#8217;m going to feed her through a chipper shredder.<\/p>\n<p>December 26th<br \/>\nStill snowed in. Why the hell did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She&#8217;s really getting on my nerves.<\/p>\n<p>December 27th<br \/>\nTemperature dropped to -30 and the pipes froze; plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him, he only charged me $4,400 to replace all my pipes.<\/p>\n<p>December 28th<br \/>\nWarmed up to above -20. Still snowed in. The BITCH is driving me crazy!!!<\/p>\n<p>December 29th<br \/>\n10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That&#8217;s the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?<\/p>\n<p>December 30th<br \/>\nRoof caved in. I beat up the snow plow driver, and now he is suing me for a million dollars, not only for the beating I gave him, but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up his ass. The wife went home to her mother. Nine more inches predicted.<\/p>\n<p>December 31st<br \/>\nI set fire to what&#8217;s left of the house. No more shoveling.<\/p>\n<p>January 8th<br \/>\nFeel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed ???<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Author Unknown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moved to North Dakota this fall. We heard that summers are fun and winter is beautiful. We think there is no more beautiful a place in the whole world! December 8 &#8211; 6:00 PM It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=48343\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Diary Of A Snow Shoveller&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-humourhumor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48345,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48343\/revisions\/48345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}