My first time using a snowblower

If you go around calling yourself "The Quality Snow Blower Guy", then clearly you have a love and a passion for snowblowers. And that certainly is the case for me, and that dates back to the first time I ever used a snowblower.

I grew up having to shovel my driveway when it snowed. Granted we weren't living in the Canadian Yukon, but we got enough large snow storms a year that the task got to be less than fun. Of course, when you're a kid, you'll clear 10 driveways if they paid you a few dollars to do it, but you don't get paid doing it at your own house!

But one of my friend's houses was a little bit more outside of town than ours was. They had a sixty or seventy foot long driveway, which had extra parking spots extending out of it. So there was a lot of room to clear, especially when there was a major snowstorm. Except, I never heard my friend complaining about having to shovel his driveway, even as I ranted about doing it at my house every time it snowed.

Well, after spending the night one weekend and waking up to a fresh blanket of around 6 inches, I got to see for myself firsthand why. His dad had a great walk behind Toro Snowblower. After all of these years, I forget the model, but I remember clear as day the bright red it shone with, even in the continuing snow. He started it right up, walked outside and got to work.

The snow was shooting off into the backyard, and it looked like so much fun. Not only that, but all of the neighbors seemed to gravitate to this guy. All of the sudden he was the most popular guy on the block, everybody wanted to get to borrow the snowblower for an hour to clear their own driveway.

We ended up actually running outside to help, so we could get our own turn pushing and steering the snowblower! It was like a switch was turned on inside of my head, and I vowed never to leave the task of clearing a driveway or a path to a shovel when I had control of it. And I never have, always keeping my trusty snowblower on hand, no matter where I've lived.

One day I'll surely pass on to my son the duty of clearing the driveway when it snows. It's a rite of passage, and I'll teach him the right way to do it, safely but effectively and with pride, using a snowblower. But not yet, I still enjoy it way too much!