January 24, 2019

Lessons Learned from Clearing Snow

Over the weekend, the Greater Boston area had its first significant snowstorm of the year.  While we didn’t receive the amount of snow that had been forecast, we did have the added challenge of working with a topping of sleet and freezing rain that had been falling for about 8 hours.

Knowing that last winter my capacity for enjoying the beauty of snow falling was hampered by my concern and angst concerning whether or not I would be able to clear myself out, I decided I had to see what I could do to reduce my anxiety.  Last year I did take an important step to help with the anxiety – I hired someone with an SUV and plow to at least clear the snow from the bottom of my driveway.  The Town that I live in does a good job of making our roads passable, but their good work means that I frequently face a mound of snow that can reach over a foot and one-half of snow or higher at the end of the driveway. As that mound freezes, it is very difficult to push my snow blower through it to reach the street.

My house sits on a very narrow lot, and the house is set toward the back of the lot which means that I have a very LONG and narrow driveway to clear.  In the past, before I got a snow blower and before I accepted that trying to clear the driveway via shoveling was just not a viable alternative, I used to park my car near the end of the driveway and just shovel the short distance to the street.  That solution did make it possible for me to get out, but in the New England Winters where standing snow might still be visible in late March, I started to feel claustrophobic.  And in the event of an emergency, it wouldn’t be possible for a firetruck or an ambulance to get into the driveway.

Thus the purchase of a snow blower!  The first winter I owned a snow blower we had a record breaking winter of more than 120 inches of snow.  At first I was elated that I could move the snow so easily, but by the end of the winter, I was less enamored with the process.  Fortunately, that winter was a cold winter which means that snow is generally light and fluffy and easier to move than heavy wet snow.

Last year our winter snowfall consisted of some heavy snowfalls that were difficult to move and that were deep. I remember one that occurred in mid- to late December at a time when I was recovering from a bout with the flu.  I managed to dig out, but it was a miserable two hours of constant slugging, and my hands were so cold that once I got back inside, I could barely get my coat unzipped and my boots off.  That’s cold!

So this year I decided I was going to assess what I could do differently to make this easier for myself.  The first thing I did was to order 400g insulate boots.  A friend told me how she had invested in a pair and her feet remained dry and warm regardless of how long she was outside.  The second thing I did was order a pair of heated gloves.  I ordered the gloves from Amazon initially and the package arrived WITHOUT the adapter necessary for charging the gloves.  Since the gloves were made in China and the phone number to call if there were problems was an international number, I decided the best option was to return them and get a credit.  Amazon was very accommodating and I received a full refund within two days after returning them to an Amazon drop-off service nearby.  I searched online for another pair and ended up ordering a set that had great reviews of how well the gloves worked from Sharper Image

So, these two steps which cost me some money will address keeping me warmer, which will eliminate the misery of experiencing the cold – particularly in my hands – that nearly brings me to tears.

My next strategy involved how to break this work down in phases.   Given the layout of my house and its proximity to the driveway, plows are both too wide to go beyond the midpoint of my driveway and there is no place to put the snow beyond the halfway point as the back half of the driveway is hemmed in by my house on one side and by my neighbors hedges on the other side.

So, during our first snow this year, I positioned my car in the halfway point in the driveway.  I removed the snow in the back half of the driveway with my snow blower which is stored in the shed in the back of my lot.  I was also able to clear a path to the back door using the snow blower and doing some light shoveling.

I was then able to back my car onto the cleared area, pulling it to one side so I could get the snow blower past it, and then I could clear the front half of the driveway without worrying about getting all the way to the street as I knew help was on its way.

Given that I had these new strategies, I had more confidence that I could do this.  Plus I joined a new gym over this past summer and while I didn’t become a weightlifter in six months, I do know that I strengthened both my core and my upper body strength.  Most importantly, I wasn’t tempted to “play the mental tape” that felt it had to tell me that I was out of shape and wasn’t going to be able to push the snow blower.  Yes, if you have never used a snow blower, there is some pushing involved.

So all in all, I felt good about my first encounter with digging out this Winter.  What made the difference in my outlook and how can I learn from my action steps and apply that learning to other scenarios in my life? First, I analyzed what was contributing to my anxiety, misery, etc.  As noted, I saw my main challenges as:  a) clearing the end of the driveway – the hardest part of digging out; b) trying to persevere when my hands and feet were beyond cold; and c) shedding the mindset that was mumbling discouraging messages in my ear.

With a little bit of work, I was able to find someone to plow out the lower end of the driveway giving me access to the street and purchasing new boots and gloves was fairly easy.  Also, breaking down the task into manageable parts made the job a lot easier.  A little bit of success and encouragement goes a long way to sustain motivation.

My high-level takeaway from this experience is to remind myself to step back from tasks that feel somewhat overwhelming and to begin by analyzing and identifying the steps that I find most challenging.  Once the elements of a project become more visible, it’s easier to think of solutions.  And if we can work on our mindset, that too helps.  I need to remember to remind myself that there is no need to hang onto an outlook that encourages “just toughing it out!”  And I need to be kinder to myself when I recognize that I can’t do all the same things in the same way that I used to do them.

Let it Snow – I’m ready!