We got a lot of snow overnight. I measured it to be like 12 inches. I had to shovel my way out off the deck.
I spent at least an hour and a half shoveling my drive and walkways. I shoveled a path in the grass for the mailman even though mail wasn’t coming due to MLK day. The snow was fairly light but deep. To protect my back, I took partial cuts about a third of the depth as I shoveled. I paused frequently and went inside and took breaks. By the end, I felt some wear and my back hurt, but nothing too bad. I was sweating quite a bit.
The plow pushed snow in front of my drive, which was deeper and heavier than everywhere else. That took a while. The plow put a huge pile of snow in front of my neighbors drive, like five or six feet high. He’s older and has two knees replaced, so another neighbor went over to help him shovel. I went over after I was done with mine, though he had gotten through most of the big pile already. I helped finish the pile and push through the length of the drive. It went quick with three of us.
I hadn’t met the one neighbor before really. I had seen him plenty and we said a few words here and there, but never really talked. We talked while shoveling; mostly he talked. He talked about shoveling drives when he was younger and it was easier. He talked about a past job doing mulch for landscaping. He talked about his newer job assembling grills and bikes for stores. It was good to finally talk to him.
I luckily didn’t have to go out. I was able to work from home. I treated it as somewhat of a snow day though, working only 2-3 hours. I had some Earl Grey tea and later some hot cocoa. I talked to my family and friend via phone / messaging about the snow. I shoveled and then rested.
This is the most snow we’ve gotten in a while, at least all at once. My one neighbor said it hadn’t been that bad since the 70s. I do remember one bad one while living here (last five years) where there were lots of complaints about how long it took for the plows to come all over Akron. I also remember some further back that were bad, though I was living a bit more North at the time. One particularly infamous one involved a lot of snow while driving my parents’ to the airport, with the car struggling and also the airplane struggling with the snow. And there was one where the power went out in much of the Eastern United States. I don’t remember quite how much snow fell those times, but it seemed like a lot.
My parents’ drive still needs shoveled, last I heard. I may try and get over there in the morning to help. It will be a little hard though since I normally go into the office on Tuesdays. But it’s a lot of snow for my dad to handle by himself.