Commuting With Crabby
Oh my heavens it's snowing again. So much snow, nowhere to put it. The City in all its wisdom has announced that people who shovel their snow onto the street will be subjected to a $100 fine. Normally, I totally support this. You would also be fined if you don't clear your sidewalk within 12 hours of a snowfall (I think it should be six hours, but I'm Crabby). This week, however, we should be exempted from these rules. Here's my dilemma. I'm short. The snowbanks are tall. I have nowhere to put the snow, except into the street. The height of our front lawn now exceeds the range of my snow-hurling abilities. Of course I'd be willing to grow five inches taller just to please The City, but I might get fined for exceeding the zoning bylaws in my area.

Really, I hardly ever shovel the snow. It's a blue job in my household. My physiotherapist told me that there are two activities that I should never do if I want to live a pain-free life. One is painting walls, and the other is shovelling snow. I will love that man 'til the day I die. But I digress.

Sometimes, my commute to work on public transit is trying, even in excellent weather. This morning, though, was very, very trying. A car got stuck trying to back out of a driveway. The car's bum was sticking out far enough to cover the streetcar tracks. Hence, no streetcar could pass by. I was sitting right up front (nerds do this) and could see that their driveway was covered with the 18 inches of snow that we have received this week. There they were, standing in their driveway, staring at their stuck car, looking sheepish because now two streetcars were backed up waiting for clear passage.

It took about three seconds before a handful of men stood up and asked the driver if they should go push the car out of the way. "You want to get to work that badly, be my guest," she said, and let them out. Well, they made tidy work of it, and were applauded back in their seats in less than 30 seconds. Off we went.

The moral of this story? I'm short and Crabby, and I know there's a lot of snow, but if you get in my way I've got four guys over here who know what to do.