Snowing already…

I’m worn out from shoveling.

It didn’t help, of course, that after wearily putting away the shovels last night, I woke up to find that the plows had inundated my driveway and sidewalks.

Of course, I knew it would happen. It always does.

I can’t really fault the town. The snow has to go somewhere, of course, and it’s probably unrealistic for the drivers can put it all in front of that house up the street where that guy I don’t like lives.

But still.

And to hear on the radio when I finally got done that another storm is heading our way Saturday night or Sunday, well, that’s why I should have popped in Springsteen’s new Magic CD and left the news to those who are stronger than I am.

I’m too tired for winter.

Tulips at Elizabeth Park, and other joys of spring

Enough of politics for the moment. With this glorious spring weather, go check out the trails at the MDC reservoir, the flowers at Elizabeth Park, the construction in the Center or sit and watch a Little League game at one of the town’s many ballfields. It’s a great time of year.

Crack the whip on sidewalk scofflaws!

§ 115-24. Removal or covering of snow or ice required.

The owner, agent of the owner or occupant of premises bordering on any street or public place within the Town where there is an established sidewalk shall cause to be removed therefrom any and all snow and ice within 12 hours after the same shall have fallen or formed or within 12 hours after sunrise when the same shall have fallen or formed in the night season. When it is impracticable to remove ice, the sidewalk shall be made safe and convenient for travel by covering with sand or some other suitable substance.

I know the town has lots to do every day, but this would be a fine day to put some of it aside and crack down on the many people who don’t bother to shovel their walks.

The storm was Friday night. Anybody who hasn’t got their sidewalks cleared by now isn’t going to do it — and probably never does. I know in my neigborhood it’s the same folks today that always ignore the law, and apparently don’t care if schoolkids have to trudge in the street or across icy peaks.

It especially irks me when they shovel out their driveways so they can get their cars out but don’t lift a finger to clear the public walkways that the law mandates they make passable. I saw one guy who had his driveway clear but had about 6 feet of snow piled high on each side of it, right where the sidewalk is. He just doesn’t give a damn about the law or the public.

So let’s nail these bums today. The sun is out. It’s a beautiful day to send the cops out to issue a barrage of tickets and bring some attention to this ongoing problem. Whack these scofflaws with a big fine and they’ll think twice about ignoring the shoveling law in the future.

Shoveling is no damn fun

Out there chopping ice so I could clear the sidewalk this morning, I watched with pure envy as neighbor after neighbor fired up some monster snowblower and started in. Yeah, they’re an environmental disaster. And, yeah, they’re wasteful. And, yeah, they’re pretty costly for the amount of use they get.

And, yeah, I really want one.

Thankfully, my neighbors are pretty nice. They often clear my sidewalk when they’re out doing their own, probably because they feel sorry for the pitiful guy who has to shovel as if it were still 1934.

My back hurts. I’m going to get a beer and watch some basketball.

Snow, hail, ice and corned beef

This morning, before the snow started coming down in earnest, I went to the grocery store. In terms of creativity, this was not one of my finer moments. Nor, I have to say, is heading to Waldbaums shortly before a snowstorm something that a smart man would do. But I did it. And I admit it.

It all had to do with forgetting to buy corned beef earlier in the week.

You see, my kids have this idea that on St. Patrick’s Day, we boil some beef all day before shoving it in the oven for a half hour or so with a healthy heaping of brown sugar on top of the slab. The sugar does nothing for the health value of the meal, but it makes the holiday dinner taste something akin to desert, so the kids naturally love it. I figure there’s no point in eating healthy to honor our Irish ancestry. It just doesn’t fit with the whole Irish food ethos.

So, anyway, at Waldbaums I saw lines stretching from the registers back to somewhere near the frozen waffles. It looked pretty scary. But I was not about to disappoint my children tomorrow.

I made my way back to the meat section only to find a mere handful of the most godawful-looking corned beef I’d seen since, well, ever. And that includes a few months in the British isles.

A helpful fellow behind the counter said a new truckload was coming in momentarily. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of a semi trailer loaded with corned beef. It is a troubling picture.

I opted instead to head over to Stop & Shop, a store that is unfailingly pleasant. Maybe it’s the union help. Though it, too, was jammed, at least the registers were rushing people through without undue delay. It also had lots of corned beef, making my particular expedition well worth the effort.

So all of this is just another long-winded way of saing that when I should be shoveling Saturday, I’ll instead be carving the fat off the corned beef and tossing it in the pot. And at the end of the day, we’ll eat it, gladly, and perhaps give a passing thought to Thomas and Mary and Christopher and Mary and our other Irish ancestors, half of them named Mary, who hustled off to America rather than starve in Ireland.

Thank God they made it to this land, where the luck of the Irish has been far more evident than it’s ever been in Ireland itself.

Need some of that global warming

I’m tired of being cold.

What happened to all those warm January days? I’m ready for spring.