Broom vs. Snow

I’m not sure how many people here in Washington would figure out that I was a Canadian if I didn’t tell them. No boots, no jacket, no gloves or hat, a car that’s useless in snow and has no chains – I probably seem more like someone from the tropics than a veteran of colder weather. Fortunately, the very mild and pleasant winter we’d been having returned today, with a daytime temperature of somewhere around 7 Celsius (45F).  Since it had already become mild by yesterday, much of the accumulation of snow had already melted off naturally.

Still, our steep driveway doesn’t get as much direct sunlight as other areas, so there was still quite a bit of snow/ice/slush. It was clear that my car wasn’t going to make it (it’s rear wheel drive with low profile tires), but I wasn’t sure about the minivan – it looked like it might be close! Unfortunately, by a large margin, it didn’t have enough traction – in part because there was a layer of ice beneath some areas of snow.  So shoveling the driveway was going to be necessary. Unfortunately, there was one more thing most Canadians have that I don’t – a snow shovel.

As I had a dinner appointment, waiting another day for the snow to melt wasn’t an option, so I looked around the garage for alternatives. Leaf blower? Maybe on the super light snow from last week, definitely not on what was there now. Pouring fuel on the snow and setting it ablaze did appeal to my lazier side, but probably wouldn’t earn many points with the neighbors. Nope, the closest thing to a snow removal tool was a large broom:

With the ice underneath, with a standard broom I’d just have been polishing the ice as if I were curling. Fortunately, this broom had a hard rubber scraper on the reverse side, which was actually quite effective in breaking up the icy bits underneath (this is not solid ice in -5C weather):

Unfortunately, with most of the snow cleared, a bigger challenge emerged – further up the driveway, at our neighbors, there was still a big pile of snow blocking half the driveway. Our neighbor – a student around 20 – came out to help. I had thought the snow pile was because the people who went sledding down our driveway made a small jump or something. He explained that he and his friends built a 6-foot high wall, which later fell down – this was just the remnants of that wall. He still seemed quite proud and impressed of their accomplishment, and a little disappointed I hadn’t seen it standing it all its glory! This also explained why he came out to help as soon as he realized I was clearing the driveway.  Since they packed snow into blocks to make the wall, igloo-style, it was a bit tougher than regular snowfall. Since he had an actual shovel, it wasn’t too hard to clear, but unfortunately, the trusty broom was a casualty of this process:

I guess use as an ice pick just wasn’t something the manufacturers of the broom had in mind!