there'll be days like this

the children are short, the days are long

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

My dream came true... and it was even awesomer than I hoped

Just yesterday I was saying to Jeremy that I wished that the town would come and remove some snow from our street. I have been watching dump trucks full of snow drive by for the past 2 days taunting me. Our street (at least the one our driveway is on) has been about 2/3 the size it is when there is no snow.

What this means is that when I shovel the driveway, I uncover the sidewalk and then have to shovel a further 4 feet out to the street. While this makes more room for an extra car to park, it is also a back breaker.

This morning I heard the siren song of large trucks backing up, so I went to the window to investigate. For several minutes I watched as a grader drove back and forth up the street, eventually leaving a trail of snow slightly off center. I wasn't sure how the snow was supposed to get into a dump truck that way. I assumed they would push it into a big pile and then use an excavator to pick it up and dump it in the truck.

But no!


I know this picture isn't great, but here's what they actually do: That big bulldozer thingie, instead of having a scooper on the front, has a giant version of a snow blower called a SnoGo. The snow blower machinery is as tall as the dump truck (and is obstructed in the photo). The arm that aims the snow being thrown hooks over, sort of like after a basketball player shoots, or the way a fey man holds his hand. Then the dump truck drives slightly ahead of the big snow blower and the snow blows in as they drive down the street.

Genius!

It's the little things...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it like the thing that shoots the chopped up corn into the trucks?

Hott Mama said...

I don't know what you are talking about or why you are hiding behind the label anonymous. I know nothing of chopped up corn shooters.

Anonymous said...

Everytime I try to post as moment something goes haywire! How can you not know the things that shoot the corn into the back of trucks in the fall? What VT are you living in?

Hott Mama said...

Apparently one with less cornfields than yours.