Now that the leaves are changing it has gotten me a bit giddy thinking about our first snow that’s going to be soon upon us. Even though snow shoveling / plowing is certainly a grueling way to earn a buck because you’re working well over 24 hour shifts and you’re out in mother nature’s worst.
Though one of the magically things about working through a snowstorm is you get to experience the evolution of our every day lives. What I mean by this is that in this kind of work you get called into work when there’s a few inches of snow on the ground and then work through the storm until the last snow flake has fallen which could easily be more then 24 hours later.
Lets say that we started working around 3pm in the afternoon. It’s just before rush hour and everyone has been hoping that their businesses would close early and now many businesses are letting their people go home early. You can see the increase in traffic both on the roads and on the sidewalks as the evening comes upon us and gets darker and darker as we work into the evening. After the evening rush hour, things start to get quiet and really peaceful as we work into the night clearing the snow.
As we make our way into the early morning hours there’s a surreal feeling because it’s just you and mother nature – ok, there’s also the other crews working alongside you – though the falling snow dampens the sound of the machines and trucks as the snow continues to blanket the ground.
The next thing you know you can start to see the traffic pick up on the roads again as the morning is among us and the sun starts to rise. It starts off slow and by 7:30AM the roads are bustling and the world is back to work.
Depending how bad the snow storm is, you’ll witness the cycle and after a few times you’ll get some real enjoyment out of it’s simplicity and predictability.
-DMB-
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