Clearing snow? Why would he help with that?

[KiaKat]

Only because it's his JOB.

There's a bit of a snowstorm going on right now.

We have a new landlord. Who has decided to hire someone to shovel walks and plow the tiny little parking spaces* we have behind the building. In the past, we've always just shoveled our own cars out, as necessary, and the landlord cleared the walks. It worked well. I miss that.

The new one has decided that the tiny little gravel "parking lot" needs to be plowed, and our car has to be moved for this to happen. During a snow emergency. When street parking is down to half capacity, and the general attitude is "salt early, clear later." So me, with my sinus infection, throws on coat and (thin) gloves and goes down to move my car upon request.

I get outside, and find that the walk is cleared, but not near my car. No, the walk is cleared up to the edge of the snow pile surrounding my car, so I have to trudge through nearly knee-deep snow around to the driver's door.

Then I have to clear the car off. Now, this is a new car for us. Husband totaled the former car in the first storm of the year (fuck icy roads), and so we now have a sturdy Subaru. Which is awesome, except I'm short and can't reach the top of the car. So here I am, in shoes that are entirely inappropriate for the job, trudging through snow while dumping more snow on myself while trying to get the car just clear enough to pull it out and let the plow do its thing.

Where's the plow guy, you ask? INSIDE. WITH HIS SHOVEL. He could have helped me, at least by clearing a path around the car, or offering to let me use his shovel to clear my own path. But no. The moment I appeared, he vanished.

Asshole.

*photo attached for reference. Tiny "parking lot," the walk was cleared up to the edge of the decorative grasses. The entire section around my car was untouched.

[eltf177]

At which point I would refuse to move my car until the end of the day. If I move it now it's the end of my day, you can pay me to go and stay home!

[Pixilated]

"How do you expect me to move my car while it's still trunk-deep in snow?"

*goes back to watching the weather reports on CNN*

I mean, yes, obviously you have to move your car but ... this is something of a Catch-22. You have to move your car so he can clear the snow, but you can't move your car until he clears the snow.

It's nice of the new landlord to think of these things, but he doesn't seem to have thought this through very well.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Wow, in the opinion of someone who used to drive a plow, that parking lot would be a pain in the ass to push. I'm gonna guess someone would have a fit if the snow was piled on the Pampas grass, so it's a drag lot.

What do they do with the removed snow? Or is it like a lot of the apartment complexes around here, they try and get them plowed before the city plows come through so they can just push the snow into the streets?

This brings up something I've wondered a few times, why don't they make snow vacuums? I've run a vacuum excavator on soil, so I know there's systems powerful enough. A vac would sure make cleaning apartment parking lots and the like easier. Of course, I wouldn't want to use it on a large parking lot, but the vac would be suited particularly for when cars can't be easily moved, especially residential locations.

[ADeMartino]

This brings up something I've wondered a few times, why don't they make snow vacuums? I've run a vacuum excavator on soil, so I know there's systems powerful enough. A vac would sure make cleaning apartment parking lots and the like easier. Of course, I wouldn't want to use it on a large parking lot, but the vac would be suited particularly for when cars can't be easily moved, especially residential locations.

It'd be ridiculously oversized, cumbersome, expensive, and useless for dealing with more than about an inch of snow. The snow would have to be drawn into a tank of some sort, which would have to be fairly large and would become quite heavy very quickly. And wet snow versus 'dry' snow could create problems as well. For snowfalls of an inch or two, the good ol' Mark I snow shovel can't be beat in terms of cost-efficiency in small areas. For more significant snowfalls, there are snow blowers, and for large areas, there are plows.

[dalesys]

... and for large areas, there are plows.

And for very large areas, there's moving to Kiester Wurst, with the Jape Man.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I lived in a larger apartment building (about 60 units) that plowed as needed, but would try to get all the cars out to plow properly a few times a week. They usually did this at about 10am on a weekday, because most tenants would be at work and there would be less than a dozen cars still in the lot. One of the first times the super knocked on my door and asked me to move my car I told him (truthfully) I'm drunk, you move it if you want. Gave him my keys, he moved it and brought my keys back later. I would often tell him I was too drunk to move it after that, and he would do it for me.

Play drunk? Might help.

ETA - Reread, realized this sounded bad. I was working nights at the time, got off work about 6am, 10am was getting on for bed time. Sometimes people would stop by after shift and have a few drinks, so being drunk at 10am wasn't as bad as it sounds.

[greek_jester]

ETA - Reread, realized this sounded bad. I was working nights at the time, got off work about 6am, 10am was getting on for bed time. Sometimes people would stop by after shift and have a few drinks, so being drunk at 10am wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Don't worry, I think most of us gave you the benefit of the doubt, given the number of people on shifts on this site!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

At which point I would refuse to move my car until the end of the day. If I move it now it's the end of my day, you can pay me to go and stay home!

Seconded. I'd been telling them to get their ass out there and help or I ain't moving a damn thing.

So glad I live in a house.

[Gizmo]

This brings up something I've wondered a few times, why don't they make snow vacuums?

I'd be concerned the heat of the parts would start to melt the snow and therefore cause it to melt and possibly run out of the vacuum again.... (not with a technical mind though, so I've probably overlooked something).

I have been known to clear snow by melting it with a leafblower though.....

[mhkohne]

I'd be concerned the heat of the parts would start to melt the snow and therefore cause it to melt and possibly run out of the vacuum again.... (not with a technical mind though, so I've probably overlooked something).

I have been known to clear snow by melting it with a leafblower though.....

Actually, if you did build a snow vac, you'd probably WANT to mellt it - snow has a lot of volume, if you melt it, it's a lot more compact, and it's a lot easier to keep the various tube clear if the thing is essentially a big wet vac with heaters all over it.

[ADeMartino]

I'd be concerned the heat of the parts would start to melt the snow and therefore cause it to melt and possibly run out of the vacuum again.... (not with a technical mind though, so I've probably overlooked something).

I have been known to clear snow by melting it with a leafblower though.....

Oh, I've used leaf blowers - though just to blow it off the walks. MANY times. Much to the annoyance of the neighbor - who claimed to hate the noise, but he had a leaf blower of his own and used it all the time in the summer. I think his gripe was HE hadn't thought of using it to clear snow.

As for using a 'vacuum' device - if such a device existed, you'd probably want to melt the snow - but few people realize just how much water there really IS in snow - 'wet' snow in particular. To illustrate, try this: The next time you get some heavy snowfall, grab a shovel and take a few scoops. See how much area you cleared with a shovel? Versus how much weight you moved? For a vacuum type device to be effective, it would be fairly large and you'd have to have it on some sort of dolly, and would probably require a gas engine. VERY cumbersome - especially in light of the fact that a snow blower does pretty much the same job without having a tank to empty. A vacuum unit light and small enough to strap on and carry on your back would be pointless for anything but the very lightest snowfall, and still considerably more expensive and maintenance-intensive than the classic snow shovel.