First Snow

First snow of the season and we go outside to clean off the driveway. We got about four inches so my husband goes for the gas-powered, self-propelled snow-blower that was a hand-me-down from my father-in-law who smartened up and bought a plow. My father-in-law will be 90 in a few weeks; I think this plow was his first toy. My husband hands me the better of two shovels we have in the garage. He revs up the engine, throws the snow-blower into drive and follows the self-propelling monster down the driveway. I start shoveling the steps. The snow-blower cuts a neat footpath down the length of our driveway and stalls at the bottom. My husband tries to fix it. I keep shoveling. Fifteen minutes later I have cleared the steps and have started on the driveway; my husband is still puttering with the dead snow-blower. He gives up, leaves it in the road and TAKES MY SHOVEL! I get the old rickety one and we work side by side for a while. He continually instructs me on the proper way to push the snow. After a few passes across the top of the driveway he goes back to the snow-blower. Instead of giving it to me, he puts the good shovel down like it is on reserve. The snow-blower starts! I put down the rickety shovel and take up the one that can actually lift the snow as he follows after the put-put-putterer. Halfway up the driveway the snow-blower stalls again. The snow is too wet and heavy and it keeps clogging the ancient machine. He TAKES MY SHOVEL AGAIN! We do this routine for a while. Every time the snow-blower stalls he TAKES MY SHOVEL as if he has dibs on it; as if it is beneath him to use anything but the best working equipment we have. I am not surprised by this behavior. He does it in the fall too, or at least he used to do it. Back in the day when leaf removal was a family activity, he & my son would fight over the good leaf-blower and I’d rake while they argued. Now that we have a great leaf-blower neither one of them lifts a finger; they just let me do the whole thing. I didn’t really mind this year. It was a warm autumn and it is a great leaf-blower. I would get into these almost Zen states with the heavy contraption strapped to my back and the vibration coursing through my body that would last for hours after I stopped. But the snow is another matter. That snow-blower scares me, with those powerful blades churning and getting stuck and threatening to cut off your hands if you try to clear out the clogs. I started it by myself once and thought I’d be sucked under its thick, squat wheels. And when it stalls (notice I don’t say “if”) there is no way to move that thing! So it looks like the snow-blower will remain my husband’s vehicle of choice and I will invest in a second “good” shovel. I just hope it doesn’t snow a lot!