We hardly ever get enough snow in Seattle to warrant buying a snowblower. About five years ago, we did have quite a storm that dumped about six inches overnight. I was outside admiring the view when my next door neighbor came out of his garage. He was an engineer in Minneapolis and moved out here to work at Microsoft. He looked at the driveway and the sidewalks with a real look of satisfaction on his face. He went back into the garage and in about five minutes came out behind a snowblower that was a thing of beauty. It was a walk-behind, had crawler tracks on each side, a 10 hp engine, a front auger, a large chute that swiveled in all directions, and dual headlights on it. He fired that up, and the snow was shooting out about fifty feet away. I stood there like Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel with a look of wonderment on my face. He did his driveway, my driveway, and the sidewalks in about 10 minutes. After I begged him, he let me drive it, and I did about three other driveways and I was grinning ear to ear.
He parked it back in the garage, came back out and said it was the first time he had used it since moving from Minneapolis, and man, did it feel good. I thought it was just about the coolest thing since sliced bread, but he said that almost everyone back in Minnesota had a snowblower, although since he lived on rural property, he had bought a larger one than most. I was so entranced, I forgot to look at the brand. Ever since then, I hope for a big snowstorm here so Al can deploy the snowblower again.
I am sure that for those of you who live in snow country, the novelty wears off, but boy was that fun.
