Lessons Learned the Hard Way! (Painfully)

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Over the last 48 hours our part of the country got about 8 inches of heavy wet snow. Beautiful snow blower in the garage, and one poor husband with a thrown out back.

In the true spirit of bull headed (to a fault)independence, I decided I would blow the driveway out myself! Have always figured I could do anything I decided I was going to do, inspite of a small stature. This is a medium sized snow blower, should be no problem. A lot of people use snow blowers.

Had trouble pulling the cord on this thing, they are designed for herculees. Was delighted to find out you could plug the thing in and then turn the key and it would start. Figuring out how to start it was no problem, I'm mechanically inclined. Reved it up, engaged everything, and the damn thing took off, with me hanging on. Something about self propelled. It went down the driveway and right into the hedge, me still attached. Ended up in the hedge, with the thing still running. Neighbor came to rescue and turned the thing off and got me and that damn machine out of the now damaged hedge. Left arm will be ok in 3-5 weeks, and the scratches on the face will heal without scaring. PLEASE, PLEASE, remember what happened to me, and don't make the same mistakes I did. If you aren't strong enough to pull the cord, you probably shouldn't be using it anyway, so keep your grubby little hands off. This bull headed independence idea, can get you into serious trouble, unless you really know your personal limits.

Had a similar incident this summer with the chain saw getting away from me. Hubby had been working on a wood pile for days and decided I would help him out. Could have been disasterous. Figured the snow blower would be safe as it sat on the ground, and couldn't go airbourne.

Have finally learned a lesson from this one!

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), February 19, 2000

Answers

Suzy, I don't want to sound stupid, but, hey, don't you have one of those ingenious inventions known as the *snow shovel*? No gas or electricity required. Healthful benefits. Just ask BigDog or GreyBear...

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), February 19, 2000.

Suzy,

When I read your post it brought to mind my definition of "Woman's Work" which is:

"Anything SHE is physically capable of, that HE would rather not do."

So I would guess that in this instance, snow-blowing is MAN's work.

-- Gerald R. Cox (grcox@internetwork.net), February 19, 2000.


Dear dinosaur,...It depends on the driveway. Mine is approximately a block long. I use the shovel around the door as needed though.

-- Mumsie (shezdremn@aol.com), February 19, 2000.

Snow shovel? After a heart attack a couple of years ago, they said ABSOLUTELY NO SNOW SHOVELING, but they didn't say anything about snow blowers. The driveway is quite long and wide, and would take forever to shovel. Hubby usually does it, but he was in bed with a bad back so just wanted to help him out.

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), February 20, 2000.

lady suzy, it's not the size of the human in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the human.

don't give up trying to "do" read the manual on all eq. you anticipate working with. go thru in-service with-out turning on practice.... practice.

my three daughters can outshoot more than one goat-roper. my one daughter called about a problem with her toilet bowl...I offered to come over and help fix...she said come over and watch....then if I don't do it right,i'll try it again.

we need to stop talking about mankind and womenkind and start talking about humankind.

of course thats not going to cure my mad about women getting to bear kids.

don't get me wrong.."vivi..la..differANCE"

-- tso (bestrong@cmc.net), February 20, 2000.



Well, suzy, it is now a couple of days later. I usually don't get stiff and sore till the day after the day after I pull (another) stunt like that! :-)

But, dinosaur, you forgot to include a disclaimer when you advised someone to seek advice on the use of manual hand tools from Big Dog and Greybear (and they got the scars to prove it too!).

Hope hubby is feeling better, and you aren't feeling worse, suzy!

-- Lilly (homesteader145@yahoo.com), February 20, 2000.


Ladies, don't forget your weight training!

A lot of us would have fewer accidents, like the unfortunate one Suzy had, if we built up our upper body strengh a bit. This does not mean becoming Ms. Universe! It simply means adding some light weights to our aerobic routine or lifting canned foods (for frugal exercisers -- hold a can in each hand) for an increasing number of reps.

The trick is to start slowly and build up. I shovel my walks and drive by hand, which I wouldn't attempt without knowing that my back and arms (and heart!) can handle it.

Hope that you're doing better today, Suzy!

-- (ladybuckeye_59@yahoo.com), February 20, 2000.


Suzy, I hope you're feeling better by now. My fun equipment story involves a tiller. Watch for those, too. :)

-- helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), February 20, 2000.

Its been several days now, and this was a real lesson that I need to get in shape! To say the least. The scratches are starting to heal and will be ok. The left arm muscles are pulled all the way to the neck and that will take a little longer. Dr. suggested physical therapy after the next week or so, but will see how it goes. Dinosaur, think I will have to work into this physical stuff slowly, a little at a time. Mr. Cox, thank you for your understanding. Mumsie and Lilly, hope you aren't sore too from this little blast of snow! tso, you sound like a sweetie. Helen, thank you for your concern.

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), February 20, 2000.

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