Ice Rocks (That's a Noun, Not a Verb)

Bread, milk, and a pickax?

Yes, if you did not clean up after the recent series of storms, a shovel won't cut it. The snow and ice has solidified into a rock-like mass that can only be dislodged by a pickax or heavy equipment.

A sidewalk untouched all winter at the southwest corner of Park & Seventh had a couple of young men wielding pickaxes last week. Judging by the degree of their exertion, the stuff was not going away easily.

Property owners who were just hoping the ice would melt may have gotten their comeuppance in a notice from the city to clean their sidewalks. Several of the recent storms were mixes of snow, sleet and freezing rain and pedestrians were slipping and sliding all over, except for those teenagers who seem to be able to levitate over the ice in their expensive kicks. (Hmm. If I trade my heavy-duty storm boots for the latest Nikes, could I do the same? More likely, I would suffer a major fail of my bone density and end up in JFK.)

My ex-husband and I disagreed on how to deal with snow and ice. He was of the school that holds it will all melt by, say, July, whereas even before the divorce in 1977, I wanted to get the ice out of my way. He moved to California, an alternate method of avoiding snow removal, while I am still here in the land of ice and snow and still wanting to walk on a clear path.

As the dratted groundhog decreed, there are still some weeks of winter and more storms in the offing. So salt and chip, clear those drains in case anything melts, and if you have kept pace with the storms by cleaning up after each one as it came along, please accept my congratulations on being a fellow fussbudget.

---Bernice

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