Snow Ends, Kind Neighbors and Bosses

The snow on our roof and in our trees

As you may know by now, if you read our Facebook page, we had one large snowstorm, followed by a day of melting, and then a mispredicted snowstorm yesterday of much more than the 1-3 inches the weatherman said.  All told, I believe we ended up with another 6 to 8 inches.

We also live on a steep hill that most of the year is not a problem - until we get this dry light snow that is unbelievably slippery!  So my attempt to get up the hill yesterday was a failure, which led to me high centering on a rather large rock. So as we were stuck there, a neighbor came by and told us that his wife had the tow chain in her car - he'd go get it and come back.  For him, that meant a 40 minute round trip, and giving up some of his free time - he was off to do grocery shopping.  When he got back, I'd gotten most of the snow cleared from around the rock - it was clear the car needed to be jacked up to get the rock clear; it was stuck on the frame.  So he got under that car and jacked it up, pulled the rock out, and stood back to direct me so I could get the car turned around and back down the hill to the bad weather parking lot for the area - the local church. he even followed me and gave me a ride back to the house, saving me over a quarter mile walk.

he did this out of selflessness, expecting nothing in return, and was thrilled when I have him a dozen "homemade" eggs and the offer to come get some any time he likes.

He's not the first neighbor to help us out in the past; in return, we've tried to repay the kindness, and to help out neighbors when they need it.

But that was not the only kindness of this storm.  My boss, knowing the storm conditions, called yesterday evening to make sure I would be able to make my job for tomorrow.  I told her what the situation was, and said I'd walk down at 6 am and if I couldn't get the car out, I'd call immediately.  An hour later, she called back, saying since it was such a short job - a few hours - and we know the highway conditions after a storm, she said she'd be happier if I stayed home and did not risk myself.  That is the first time in a long time I've had a boss who cared more for my well being than getting the job done. I was impressed and awed, and it makes me very happy that I work for a company that sees it's employees as valued assets.

And it gets better.  The church parking lot is itself down a short hill; I left off going down until I knew the lovely bright sunshine of the day had done some work and turned the fluff into a harder, crustier snow I could easily drive on.  So about 1:30 pm, I put on my boots, coat and gloves, grabbed a snow shovel and trekked on down, fully expecting to do some digging. (we'd recleared the driveway earlier, and knew the sun was doing a great job with the melting.)  When I got to the bottom of the hill, I was surprised to find that not only had someone plowed around my car, they'd taken the time to clear all the snow off of it for me!  Some anonymous helper made my afternoon a whole bunch easier!  I threw the shovel in the back, started the car, and easily backed up and drove myself out of the lot, down the street to turn around, and took a good run at our road and made it to the top with only a few fishtails.

This type of stuff restores my faith in people, and in the area.

Many thanks, wonderful neighbors!