Miscellaneous Monday

You saw it, I do not think anyone else did. The gen-pop will get another opportunity another day. For those of you confused by the opening to this post, that means you are getting a post fresh from the oven this morning. It is a catch-all holiday Monday honoring the Chief Executives of the country -- Lincoln, Washington, T.R., Reagan and yes Carter, Buchanan, and William Henry Harrison who has to be the most ineffectual President ever.  This means I am off work today. Lucky me. I get a day off in the middle of winter, with more snow and ice and wintry goodness scheduled.  I just may have to go down to the cigar shop this afternoon. Curse you groundhog.

We have had record snowfall this winter. I live on a cul-de-sac and that meas most of the front yards are semi-pie shaped. Due to the irregular shape of our court, the stretch in front of my house and the neighbor to the north there is a long open space.  In fact, this is the only real place that leaves significant room between driveways. Out of necessity, the plow shoves all of the snow from the street into my front yard. We now have a mound of icy, chunky, snow some 6-8 feet high and 20 feet in diameter in front of our house. There is nowhere else to put the snow.

The result is the snow has encroached into the area in front of my mailbox. I have shoveled it away as far as possible, but there is an ice wall about three feet away from my mailbox. My mail lady refuses to bring my mail since she can not drive up and poke in the bills by reaching through her little truck window. She would have to put one foot out of the truck and lean forward to reach the mailbox.

I understand the driver is not suppose to get out, it is not a walking route. But it is not like I don't shovel.  My drive and sidewalks are always cleaned off.  I am one of the first in the cul-de-sac to clean the snow.  I have managed to move a significant amount from the snow mountain, breaking one snow shovel in the process, but now I am at the core of the my local Mt. Everest and it is rock-hard and solid ice.

I chased the snow plow driver down Friday evening and explained that I have received mail once in the past 8 days due to his snow pile.  He looked at the mound and told me "I can't move that." I replied that I sure could not move it with a shovel. He clipped away the edges but there is really nothing anyone can do. The mail lady drove right past again Saturday.

I hope to catch the mail lady tomorrow and ask her what she proposes for the snow mountain.  If she continues to refuse to deliver I guess I will have to call the postmaster. What really honks me off is my neighbor to the north has not shoveled even one flake of snow all winter.  He just drives through the mess in his driveway. Since his mailbox is on the other side of his driveway, my lazy neighbor gets his mail, while I rant in silent frustration.