Les Bonnes Choses

We got dumped on here in Chicago this week. That left us with quite a bit of snow that still has not been dealt with. Considering that we're next to a lake, I find it quite perplexing that Evanston doesn't run sidewalk plows, instead relying on people to handle their own snow removal. As I live near a Metra station, a good number of people use the sidewalk in front of my house. In the morning, they come in droves toward the station, and in the evening, they pass by in the opposite direction. Thus, I was obliged to clear the sidewalk in front of my house promptly after Tuesday's blizzard. That I live on a corner lot required me to clear a metric butt-load of snow. In general, I live in a well-to-do neighbourhood, though I would consider myself adequate-to-do at best. Most neighbours who do not have landscapers to remove their snow for them at least have snow blowers. I have neither. Now, when the snow stopped falling from the sky, a second, ground-level blizzard started as my neighbours came out in force with their snow-blowers roaring. Most of the people on my street do not have driveways in front of their houses, so the snow-removal effort was largely focused on clearing out the sidewalks: a path fifty feet long by the width of a snowblower. Five minutes. I was envious, but that's not what I'm here to write about.



Now many people, after making short work of their driveways will turn their machines on the snow piles of less fortunate neighbours. In my old neighbourhood, for example, I had two neighbours who would practically fight over who would get to end the back-breaking shoveling Rebecca and I would have to do in order to get our car out of the seldom-plowed cul-de-sac. I had no such problem this week. And that would be okay, except that one of my neighbours showed just enough goodwill to plow up to my property line.

Did you run out of gas, or goodwill?