Snow rules

Monday 22 December 2008 — This is nearly 16 years old. Be careful.

We’ve had quite a start to the snow season this winter, and I’m reminded of snow rules, sometimes the hard way:

  • Lift with your knees.
  • When shoveling sidewalks, don’t forget to shovel cuts at the corners so people can get onto the sidewalk from the street.
  • Find the drain nearest your driveway and also shovel it clear so melting snow has somewhere to go.
  • When you take off your snowy outerwear, brush off the snow so it doesn’t soak through as it melts.
  • When you take off your boots, put the laces inside the boots so they aren’t wet when you need to go out again in four hours to shovel some more.
  • When you clear off your car, don’t forget your headlights. The backlit snow dome effect is charming, but not very safe!
  • Also, get the foot of snow off your car roof. It seems stuck there pretty good now, but soon you’ll hit the brakes and it will all end up on your windshield.

Comments

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Bg Porter 9:00 AM on 22 Dec 2008
Also, get the foot of snow off your car roof. It seems stuck there pretty good now, but soon you'll hit the brakes and it will all end up on your windshield.

Or worse, (after freezing on the bottom) at highway speeds it will decide to become a wing and slam into the car behind you -- almost got slammed good by this the other day..
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Jani Hartikainen 9:05 AM on 22 Dec 2008
heh, I've lived my whole life in Finland where we get tons of snow, and yet I've never heard of any "snow rules" before =)
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Paul Downs 11:44 AM on 22 Dec 2008
• Move to Florida. Plenty of housing bargains!
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Suldog 1:41 PM on 22 Dec 2008
I would add, to the excellent headlight tip, to also be sure that your taillights are clear. You don't want to brake and have the guy behind you plow into you because he couldn't see your brake lights.
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Nancy Bea 6:55 PM on 22 Dec 2008
Good rules. Except I don't understand how putting your laces inside your boots after you take them off keeps them dry? It's a bit of slow brain day for me today.
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Ned Batchelder 7:28 PM on 22 Dec 2008
@Nancy Bea: the laces get wet after the boots come off because the snow in the soles melts on the floor, and the laces sit in the puddles. Putting them in the boots lets them stay dry.
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David Boudreau 2:28 AM on 23 Dec 2008
I disagree with the laces-inside-boots thing as a rule; it really depends but I've found that trying to keep laces dry is generally a losing battle. The laces are just as likely to be dirty, wet or have snow on them when you get indoors and take them off so you risk contaminating the inside of your boot. Lace tips dangle outside the boot when in use, and though they might not touch all the way to the ground, it is very unlikely they ever stay dry.
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Bob Congdon 12:06 AM on 28 Dec 2008
In Boston there's one additional snow rule: If I shovel out my car while parked on the street, I own the spot. A chair, trash can, safety cone, etc. secures my spot when I'm not there. Parking in someone's saved spot can have dire consequences to your car. When we lived in Brighton and had to park on the street, we dug out our spots in front of the house and put chairs in the spots when we weren't there. (Fortunately we lived on a dead-end street and the area was zoned for Resident Only parking so we didn't have that much contention for the parking spots anyway).

Years ago Mayor Menino tried to get the trash collectors to remove the parking spot markers. Didn't work. Apparently Menino has relented on this now.

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