This time around, our contractor has been pretty good about clearing it in good time.
But he doesn't do the sidewalk, just the driveway.
Our neighbour two doors down has a snowblower, He does his driveway as well as his immediate neighbour's drive. It makes sense since they are attached.
He clears his sidewalk and the neighbours. but he stops when he gets to ours. Check the photo.
Actually, he went farther into ours this time. He usually stops on the exact invisible boundary between the two properties, which is where it gets narrower in the photo.
This time he went a little farther than usual, but he must have thought better of it, for he didn't go as wide. Then, he stopped abruptly and completely about three feet from our driveway.
He's a friendly guy. We chat outside, and I have twice recently met him at the grocery store, and we've had a nice conversation, so this baffles me.
I don't understand, either! With a blower, he could easily help you out!
ReplyDeleteJB loves shoveling, though. He's going nuts with this cough, and has refrained.
Yes, it does seem odd for the reasons you mentioned. Rather than speculate further, perhaps putting in a request for him to use his snowblower to also clear your walk could resolve the dilemma. It could involve payment of some sort, perhaps coffee at the local Tim Horton’s or a gift card for such a treat? It’s nit that I think payment for a neighborly gesture should be needed, but perhaps asking for his help might be a good start.
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange thing, and awkward for you to bring up, I'm sure. "I was just wondering, did you get a phone call where you stopped snowblowing across our sidewalk?" "Perhaps you suddenly had to leave...as those 10 feet of snow show." Well, as you shovel them, I hope you smile, and scratch your head a few times, in case he's looking out the window. In April you can mention it to him.
ReplyDeleteAt least you recognize him and have had conversations. I wouldn’t know our neighbours if I bumped into them.
ReplyDeleteI cannot understand this, either. Perhaps a deficiency of imagination? My Dad always did the sidewalks of our neighbors as a courtesy. I'm sure it made him feel as good if not better than the neighbors. Where we live now its a non issue because we have no sidewalks...
ReplyDeleteYou can always hope the man reads your blog!
ReplyDeleteCould you ask to borrow the blower to clear your own pavement section? This might be subtle hint. Some neighbours are weird. Our own neighbours to one side would probably measure the distance to the boundary with a tape measure to avoid accidentally helping out.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should discreetly ask the neighbor whose sidewalk that the snowblow man clears how it has come about that it gets done. Or take over some cookies and ask to borrow the snowblower.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he honestly doesn't realise or he thinks you are a twenty year old?
ReplyDeleteA conundrum. I'd ask if I could pay him to do my bit of sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteA millennial? Perhaps with school age children. I bet he blocks the post office drive, too. They are totally oblivious.
ReplyDeleteI just talked to the Ottawa daughter who lives in Sandy Hill in an infill house next to a daycare. The company that cleans their parking spots filled in her driveway this morning. This is before she has to deliver her teenager across the city to a job that starts at 8:00 am. When she gets back, the city plow has filled it in again. And then the sidewalk plow did a third fill.
ReplyDeleteCripes.
It could just be that he's not sure if you would appreciate him going into your space. Some people are touchy perhaps? So maybe, maybe he was being cautious. You never know. We never had a snowblower when we were in Illinois, but after my daughter and her husband bought our house, they bought a snowblower right away.
ReplyDeleteThat's odd.
ReplyDelete