With as much snow as we’ve had lately, there are no doubt some frustrated folks who think the city’s doing a less than spectacular job of keeping the streets clear. I’ve had a little bout of that myself, such as a couple of weekends ago when I had to help push/dig out a stuck police car before leaving my driveway, but I understand that they’ve got an overwhelming task on their hands. I figure we should cut ’em a little slack.

I do have a happy story to tell you about an encounter with a snow plow (well, payloader with a blade and snow gate) a week or so ago. I have a sidewalk across my boulevard that I never use, so I don’t shovel it. This night, however, my mom was over to babysit and I didn’t want her having to deal with the deep snow. As a result, I was out with my spade and grain shovel, dutifully chopping at the snow berm pushed up by recent plow passes.

I’m a “letter of the law” kind of guy when I get belligerent, and the snow on either side of the walk I’d cleared was quite high. Therefore, once I got to the end of the sidewalk and past the curb, I started pitching the snow forward instead of to the side. After all, I was not putting snow from private property onto public; rather, I was just rearranging the snow already on the street. At least, that’s how I saw it.

The aforementioned snow removal operator pulled up in front of me, saw what I was doing, and came to a stop. I actually expected a window or door to open and some sort of scolding to come my way; after all, it was about the time that the radio stations were airing reports of citizens being cited for throwing snow into alleys or onto roads. I couldn’t have been more surprised with what happened next.

The operator backed up, dropped his (or her) blade, and pushed the snow I’d just chiseled my way through. He cleared the area in front of my sidewalk and part of my boulevard, and cut a nice clear path along the curb for much of my yard. He angled his loader in such a way that it pushed the snow out of the way and up onto the boulevard. In a matter of seconds, and with one single swipe, he’d done more than I could have with my silly little spade.

It was dark and the loader had plenty of lights on it, so I couldn’t see into the cab. But as the loader backed up from pushing the snow out of the way, I threw the operator a friendly wave and salute. They then continued on their way up the street. It didn’t cost them even a full minute of their time, but it saved me a lot more than that. I’m going to remember this encounter the next time I get frustrated with snow on my street or alley. Apparently there are some pretty nice folks operating those machines, even if they can’t get to everybody’s neighborhood as quickly as we’d like.