Alright, Guess It Wasn't So Bad

Using my scrapper as a psuedo-guide, I estimated 2 1/2 inches of snow already fell when I left for work yesterday/Thursday morning.  I thought I was in for a bad ride to work, but it was alright (I did take it slow and drove on side streets, of course).  I was able to drive up my driveway after I accelerated a bit.  And when I got my yardstick out to see how tall the depth of snow was after I got home from work, it averaged out to about 4 inches.  And the snow as the powdery kind, not the wet, heart attack type.

For those two reasons, I started off with using the mini-snowblower.  It jams and stops if I push it up against more snow than it can handle, and it jammed frequently when I started out using it because I began at the base of my driveway, after plowed snow from the street was thrown onto it.  That was not a good sign, but once I got up my driveway past the plow line, it didn't jam.  In fact, it was quick and easy to use.  A few problems, however.  One, the auger and the chute are aligned in basically the same housing, so what you're looking at is both the snow you're going to plow and the direction that snow is going to be thrown.  Also, the battery lasted only half an hour, so it conked off halfway up my driveway.  Finally, I'm still having trouble digging the bottom plate against the driveway, so I know I am leaving snow on it as I pass over.  A concurrent issue with that is that the snow I plowed got caught in the air and fell back onto the driveway.  That means that my driveway actually isn't completely clear, even though the four inches of snow is gone.  I moved my cars around the driveway to clear it all, but I had trouble driving them back up after I used the mini-snowblower, so I had to shovel the bottom half of the driveway to clear it of snow.  And a dusting of snow has fallen tonight, so I might have a problem getting up the driveway again after work today/Friday.

This wasn't the quack device I was afraid it was.  I saw my neighbor use a similar device when I got home, and I thought I heard the plastic whirring of the augur of a mini-snowplow out in the distance.  Maybe this is a thing after all.  However, my main problem is that, as easy and quick it is to use, it is also very small.  As big and kind of onerous it is to haul out a normal-sized snowblower, I think I could have cleared much more of the driveway, if not all of it, in 30 minutes.  I don't know if I'd have the patience to make, oh, 50 passes across my driveway in order to get all the snow out using this thing.  And what if it's the wet kind of snow?  Would it work then?  I have my doubts.

Anyway, the work was (just about) half done when the battery died, so I shoveled the rest, and since it was the dry type, it was a breeze to shovel that snow away.  Two hours after I started I was done.  And I didn't have to worry about potentially breaking the garage door because it doesn't have a backup battery, because I didn't have to use the normal-sized snowplow after all.

Man, I felt so energized after I got done.  I felt like I accomplished something, even if it was the laborious chore of clearing snow.  But this time 24 hours ago I didn't know if I had the strength to get through it.  I think I did, thank Buddha.