Anarchy in the U.S.A.

So, roomie was feeling all pooky yesterday morning. She wasn't sure whether she'd be going to the doctor's office or to work, but she was heading to one or the other of those destinations.

While she was getting ready in the AM, I dressed, grabbed a snow shovel, and cleared a path to the garage. Got in and punched the opener... The garage door went up and there was her car in the alley, buried under a white cocoon and surrounded with a foot of snow.

I shoveled a path to the driver's side, snagged the push broom and knocked most of the accumulation off her econobox, stared at the rest of the alley a bit, and nearly collapsed. Roomie came out, sniffling and coughing and obviously feeling like microwaved hell, looked around and said "Get the extension cord..."

I thought she was nuts, but I paid out the orange line as she hooked up the snowblower and started clearing. The engineer chick that lives two doors down was shoveling out in front of her garage. Instead of turning left towards the street, RobertaX turned right towards the neighbor's driveway. Seeing this, our neighbor redoubled her efforts. Feeling like a total slacker, I picked up the shovel I'd set down and started continuing my roomie's path to the street, lest I let down the side.

With the three of us working, the alley was cleared in short order. I had to stop Bobbi from excavating yet another neighbor's drive with "Hey, Che Guevara of the Revolutionary Communal Snow-Clearing Committee! They can get the last two feet from their garage themselves. Get in your car and get to the doctor's office!"

Later, as I was walking back from the grocery store, my next-door neighbor came out and asked about the conditions. I told her, and she decided she'd skip the driving and just walk to the store.

This afternoon I was sitting on the front porch reading when I noticed that her sidewalk hadn't been cleared yet. This offended my sense of order. I grabbed my shovel and, with no expectation of reimbursement, started connecting my cleared sidewalk to the one two doors down. As I was finishing up, my neighbor, obviously fresh from the shower, came out and set two six-packs of Gnaw Bone Pale Ale on her front porch.

Well, gosh, I hadn't been expecting a reward for being a good neighbor, but far be it from me to turn down good beer. I made sure her sidewalk got an extra good scraping before I headed back to my front porch.

I'm dying to see how teh gummint can make a law to make this system work better...


(Interestingly, all the little side streets here were uncleared by the city's plows, which meant no plowing whatsoever. Except for one right at the end of our alley. Apparently one of the neighbors down there had paid for a clearing service that not only gave them a couple guys with shovels on the sidewalks and driveway, but also a Ramcharger with a plow blade on the street in front of the house...)