While some of you were fighting the good fight, standing firm for the Constitution and protecting a human being from the vast might of the government, I was snowbound.  My small piece of New York has seen wave upon wave of snow this month, to the point where we’re within an inch of the all-time record.

My love of snow has waned significantly over the years.  It’s beautiful for a few minutes, until Dr. SJ yells that she needs to get the Prius out and go see her patients.  The Healey has never seen snow while in my care.  When I took a look outside the back door the other morning, I realized that I was in trouble.  The five inches predicted overnight fell short of the reality.



The only aspect of snow that still brings a smile to my face is the opportunity to fire up the John Deere 6×4 Trail Gator with electric plow.  During Long Island’s typical winters, the Gator is just right for plowing the drive and garages, and I enjoy riding around, manicuring the grounds. 

One of the complaints of the Slackoisie is that old lawyers, and those who don’t cry whenever someone suggests that being a lawyer takes work, is that we lack hobbies.  While I can’t speak for others, I have a ton of hobbies.  The notion that hard work and hobbies are somehow inconsistent is hogwash.  Busy people manage to do everything they want, and need, to do. 

Plowing with the Gator is something of a hobby with me.  It’s peaceful and serene out there as I carve paths in places where only a field of white existed.  I usually spend about an hour plowing, even though I could finish it up in far less time if I had to, if I limited my plowing to just the necessities.  But stopping at the earliest opportunity isn’t my way.  As with most of what I do, I do the best I can, striving for plowing perfection.

But on that morning, it was clear to me that the snow had beaten the Gator.  Five, six inches were no match.  Eighteen inches, sadly, was well beyond its limits.  I called my gardener, who plows in the winter, for help, only to learn that his plow had broken overnight under the weight of the snow.  He had worked with me for more than 20 years, and I rely on him.  He apologized, but he was stranded. So was I.

I started calling others to find someone to compensate for my Gator’s inadequacies.  I was only able to reach one person, who informed me that his price was $250 per 100 feet of driveway.  While I might have been cutting off my nose to spite my face, I was outraged at his gouging, and turned him down.  I kept on calling, but no one else answered, and so I went to sleep that night wondering whether I would make it out before spring.  Dr. SJ was not happy.

The next morning, one of the fellows picked up my message from the day before and returned my call.  Willy told me he would be there that morning.  I explained that it was not only deep, but now icy from having sat for a day.  He told me not to worry, he had a way to deal with it.

Dr. SJ, concerned that Willy would arrive at the bottom of our driveway, see what the county plows had done by piling their snow and mush over the end, and drive away rather than deal with the disaster.  She sent my son and me down to the end of our drive to shovel out the six foot high, six foot wide, ice-mound that formed. 

It was the closest to envisioning a heart attack coming I’ve ever experienced.  But we did it, though my son took off in the middle to go on a breakfast date to IHOP (nothing, but nothing, stops a teenager from going on a date), leaving me gasping and wheezing by myself.  In anticipation, I brought along my walkie-talkie so I could tell Dr. SJ my final words if the big one hit. I was barely able to make it back to the house when I was done, but somehow I did.

Then I heard a roaring sound.  I went outside and saw it.  It was incredible.



Some days, the fight is against The Man.  Other days, it’s a fight against mother nature, weather, physics and a variety of natural laws.  Regardless, we just keep fighting, whether we wield swords or plows. 

Thanks to Willy and his Bobcat, I won the fight yesterday.  The TV weather guy says we’re getting another 12 inches this week.