November 17, 2008

• The Power of the Plow

  I was thinking about snow plow drivers while I was out shoveling the driveway this morning.  Doug was on the roof, shoveling snow too.  The plow had gone by fast before dawn today, throwing snow six feet and more beyond the edges of the road, making a wide, shallow berm.

  A berm is easier to shovel that way than when the plow goes more slowly and leaves a deeper, narrower, and more compact berm.  I don’t know if the driver thought about that, or cared.  The accumulation on the road wasn’t too heavy, and he might have been moving fast just because he could.

  There was nothing much out there to catch my eye today, just a gray sky, a raven that flew over calling a greeting, and a magpie in a treetop making raucous territorial calls.  Somewhere unseen, a parky squirrel was protesting our presence, too.  Pushing the big ergonomic sleigh shovel slowly through the berm, then accelerating across the road to dump the load over the berm on the opposite side didn’t take much thought, so my mind wandered to snow plow drivers.

  Any ordinary heavy equipment operator suddenly acquires a great deal of power when he gets in control of a snow plow.  He can make life easier or harder for anyone living on his route, with just a flick of his snow blade.  When we lived across the road, there was a guy who would go by, then reverse, change the angle of his blade, and scoop out the berm he’d left across my driveway.  What a guy!

  They can damage or destroy vehicles left in their way, without penalty.  The drivers who carelessly park in a snowplow’s way are more likely to be ticketed for it, even if the vehicle is totaled by a plow.  The plows can, and do, take down road signs and mailboxes, but that’s not exactly allowed.  It just happens.

  Our road is one of the lowest priorities for snow removal.  It hadn’t been plowed after a couple of previous snowfalls, and had eight or ten inches of snow covering it and packed in the tracks.  The main highway and paved roads are done first (after the drivers clear their own roads), then the school bus routes on back roads.  Longer, heavier traveled residential roads come next.

  It is common for little back roads like ours to go unplowed until the snow builds up to a foot or more.  If it gets too deep, one of the neighbors who have blades on their 4WD pickups will push some of it back.  They don’t always do a professional job, but it makes it easier to get in and out.  We have to go out within the next day or two, to get water.  I’m glad the plow came by today, and glad I had the energy to shovel the driveway.  I hope it doesn’t snow again until after the water run.

  • 4:53 pm
  • 12 Comments