Country snow - City snow

Chicago got hit with a big storm yesterday, I think about a foot of snow. Luckily it's the lighter snow, but a foot of it is heavy.

I finally rolled out of bed at 6:25 this morning knowing that I needed to do some shoveling. Usually the bf does the shoveling, but he is not feeling so well. I also wanted to get a good workout in so I figured shoveling for half an hour would do the trick.

I went on outside and everywhere was white, fluffy snow. The blowing snow had started but not gotten too bad. Though my boots were not completely covered, the snow was above my ankles as I walked to get the shovel. I opted to shovel the steps a bit, bad idea. Lots of garbage and leaves where there. Oh well.

Once I got up to the top of the basement stairs, I began the shoveling. Usually we shovel the entire sidewalk on the side and the front of the apartment building. I was not going to be able to do that in 30 or 45 minutes. The snow kept getting heavier, and I was running out of room, and I only had about 1/8 of the area shoveled.

You see the problem with city snow is based on room limitations. You can't throw it in the street because the plows will just throw it back up and it creates a bigger mess. Or with the side streets, you never know if/when the will come and plow those.

Another problem with city snow is that people walk through the snow on the sidewalks. They need to, I understand, but it is so much more difficult to shovel snow that has been walked through than snow that is fresh.

So I ran out of room quickly, with each section of sidewalk I was shoveling. Then when I got to the main street, people had already created a path, so I tried to make it a bit wider and nicer, only problem was, it was packed down.

After about 45 minutes of shoveling I had to be done. I was running late for getting ready for work and people kept walking through the areas that I hadn't shoveled. My car was only halfway uncovered but I don't need it until 6 tonight.

Ok I started this post about 5 hours ago and I just can't finish it...the moral of the story is...country snow = more room for the snow to go, less people tromping on it...city snow = no room, no understanding, and too many people