one more reason I am and will always be a Democrat or how I judge people through snow removal

I have this thing about shoveling.  It’s kind of ironic because it was something I used to roll my eyes at as a teenager, the mandate from my mother that the driveway had to be black.  And… twenty years later, I have that very neurotic need for my parking/driving surface to be as clear as possible.

I’ve got it down to a science, this shoveling thing.  I am a little calculated about where to deposit snow in the early weeks of winter… never knowing if it will have a chance to melt before the next piling.  And it even inspires me to start working out on a regular basis so I won’t have the aftershocks of soreness when I wake the next day.

So… today was a snow day.  And my shoveling OCD was going haywire last night.  I needed to get this driveway clean and clear to have that perfection… but also because I anticipate a number of cars tomorrow night on said driveway and don’t want any residual ice or tricky parking.

My driveway is a bit of a beast.  And I don’t deny there was a point when my neurosis crumbled a little bit, wishing someone was there to help me today – at least with that last dreadful slushy plowed road debris.  And then… as if an answer to my prayers… my neighbor brought up his truck and started plowing the driveway.

Now, I should point out I’ve spoken to this neighbor twice.  Once last year when I was shoveling the end of those plow bits… and another time when I was weeding.  He’s older, lives on his own (I think), and every time I speak to him asks me if I clean house.  Um… whatever.  The guy was helping finish up the driveway.

Except… well… he plowed the side lawn, ripping up weedy grass… and managed to pack down the heavy slushy snow where I had already revealed my clean black surface.  And that end of the driveway slushy part I dreaded?  Um… he packed that down, too. 

But… he was being nice.  So I thanked him, appreciated the effort, and waited for him to go away so I could go back to shoveling.

He came back to check on me… kept saying I should just let it go because I was going to have a heart attack.  I suppose that’s somewhat legitimate if you don’t know I’ve been in shovel training since I was eleven.  So I let that one go.  Then he asked if he could have a skid that was propped up against the garage from a recent refrigerator delivery.  Sure, why not.  So he goes up the driveway as I’m scraping up that packed icy stuff at the end of the driveway.  I manage to get some of it away… a lot was just stuck, but I just let it go… because he was being nice.

Then he had to stop on the way back to his driveway and start lamenting the local DPW and how they misuse the tax money.  Yeah, I’m annoyed they put stuff in my driveway… but I have no delusion it’s a personal vendetta.  But, he was nice… so I just nod my head and shovel some more.  But he mentioned taxes, so let’s blame Obama for the fiscal cliff.  I pause and shrug my shoulders.  Not going to get into this.  You didn’t vote for him, did you?  Of course I did. Disbelief.  And muttering some obscure name and conspiracy that is supposed to shock me.  I’m just going to shovel that snow he packed down.  You should talk to your father.  Just keep shoveling.  Nice neighbor man goes away.  I spend another hour on the driveway.  The packed snow is immovable.  I would have been done with the heavy wet stuff so much earlier… and yet… it’s still there now, unlikely to melt within the next few days… and laying a very bad foundation for the snow to come.  Blech.

So… while this is definitely a bitching story about how nobody appreciates the artistry of shoveling one’s driveway and an eye rolling worthy conversation with my old man neighbor who thinks I’m a female and should be cleaning houses, I can’t deny that as the annoyance set in, I found it only appropriate that he is a Republican.

I’m going to brush off the Obama remarks.  Because, whatever, he’s the president.  I’m done picking those fights.  I’ll even let go of the you should talk to your father bit… mostly because my father is an equally vocal and vehement Democrat.  BUT… it was the whole, I’m going to help you even though you didn’t ask for it, aren’t I a great person for doing it, even though it makes a bigger mess than was there in the first place, and leave you to clean it up part that made me say, yup, my neighbor is definitely, absolutely a Republican.