Holy shit. It snowed. And snowed. And snowed.
Then the great people of Vermont did what all the great people from every other state would do: They called on their laborers to shovel them out of the damn mess.
So a-shoveling I went. Two days worth.
Lawyers aren’t called to help shovel out neighbors. Nor our journalists. Or doctors. Or business owners. Nope, it’s the laborers. You know, like painters and such.
Ring-fucking-ring went the phone.
“You have ladders, right?” began the first of about a dozen clients and neighbors who called to seek my help to remove snow from roofs and driveways over the last 24 hours.
But it’s not really the ladders they’re looking for, you know. It’s the ladder AND the laborer. Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to work I go. Or went. Because I just finished. Yep, in the dark hours of the day after the big storm, your Snarky Boy is just a tired boy.
Just so you don’t start thinking I’m also sitting on a pile of cash that I can go piss away in beer-inspired pool matches, almost all my work today was pro-bono. And I could do away with that “almost” word if I didn’t accept the following items from some of the kinder folks who called on my services: one lemon meringue pie, a six-pack of White Tail Ale, a nice package of homemade chocolate chip cookies, biscuits from my faithful companion – the lab, and a whole host of super-sincere looks to the eye, shakes of the hand and smiling, robust thank yous.
Let’s face it, Vermont is at its best in times like this. Too bad we don’t have more storms to bring us together. My painting clients understood why I wouldn’t be venturing to the “real work,” and I understood my role in a community in need of laborers in a mighty time of labor. It was time to put all our crap aside, roll up our sleeves, and clean up the mess from the “storm of the century.”
Which is all just a really long-winded way to say: I’m not snarky right now. And whenever I try to get there, I just yawn and feel the fatigue of the labor.
So let’s just say this to one another tonight: We made it. Miraculously, with very few mishaps, we got through it. And now we got want we’ve been wanting: the thick blanket of snow that – now that the work is done – becomes our playground.
What do you say we rest on that notion and save the snarkiness for tomorrow?
Thanks. I knew you’d understand.
