A. is about to bugger off again for a couple of weeks, so he thought it would be useful for me to learn how to use the snowblower. You know, that thing we spent $1,500 on three years ago, and which has been used perhaps half a dozen times since then.
So, away we went to the shed this evening, and A. wheeled the thing out and fired it up. Took a while to start it, since it's only been used once so far this winter. Then, after about two minutes of instruction, I made a mental note never to touch the damn thing. Between the clutches and throttles and gears and rotary blades and keys and gas valves and emergency pull-start cords...all of which must be employed at the appropriate time, and in a prescribed order...Jesus. And not only is it intimidating to operate, but it's quite scary as well. It emits an unholy roar, shakes, coughs, and belches carbon emissions in the form of foul-smelling black exhaust.
A. is very puzzled by my aversion to the snowblower, insisting that it's "just a simple gasoline-powered engine". Yeah well, he can keep his toy all to himself. I've decided that, should we in fact be subject to a blizzard over the coming weeks, I will pop over to our neighbour D., and cheerfully offer him the use of our snowblower for his own driveway - if he wouldn't mind doing ours afterwards. An altogether easier solution, if you ask me.
1 comment:
My sympathies on the whole man- snow-blower thing. My man broke his foor Dec 3 very timely if you ask me and this Grandmother has not enjoyed using the damn thing this winter. A desire to continue with my present lifestyle force me to work..lol..so I had to get out of the driveway. I have been an unending source of ammusment to the men of the neighbourhood who stood in their driveways to watch me struggle with the damn thing as I headed into the wind and coated myself with ice. I was not amused!
Feel free to read of my snow blowing adventures in my blog Myfanwy's Journal, Dec 16,2007
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