SQUEAKY WHEEL'S REVENGE

The snow fairy shoveler appeared before I awoke Monday morning. He/She must have been a tired little fairy and didn't have an expectation of a thank you.

The tired fairy shoveled a very small spot behind my vehicle, more toward the end of the driveway, and poof – was gone from sight.

Normally, the entire driveway would have been shoveled, because that is what the Second Chance workers are supposed to do – shovel snow for seniors who have no other resources – and work off their community service time for “doing a crime,” according to the court.

Last week Friday, I called the probation office and left a message on a voicemail inquiring whether there would be any workers on my street since the snow storm Wednesday night.

On Saturday at 12:20pm, I was sitting in my comfortable chair (which faces my front window) and I saw the Municipal Court van turn the circle at the end of my cul-de-sac and stop in front of my driveway. Oh, finally, I will get shoveled out, I thought. Wrong. Within a few seconds, they bypassed me and drove down the street to another senior single lady's house and shoveled her driveway. The single senior lady across the street paid to get hers three-quarter shoveled Friday (he didn't even do the width of her driveway, just a path for her car).

I was not thrilled at this rejection and promptly sent a Facebook message to the head probation officer of the court and told him what happened. I saw where he read the message a few minutes later, but got no reply. I figured the squeaky wheel would get some response.

If you look closely at the two photos I have posted, you will see that I have no clear path shoveled to GET TO my vehicle (in the second photo); in the first photo, the narrow slice of driveway that was shoveled seems less than the width of my truck and the snowplow-mound at the end of the driveway is (less) narrowly cleared. My truck would have to leap over the mound on the right or get stuck in it.

I have deduced that I should no longer rely on the free service offered to seniors by the city court system – you know – the “do the crime – do the time” probationers who are sentenced to community service work, because these snowflake fairies only do a fraction of what is needed or necessary and get away with it.

Moral of the story: I have made a phone call and hired someone to come and finish the job today. It will put off paying a small bill at the end of the month, but who cares, tight budget or not, I'm a survivor. And the workers got their revenge against the squeaky wheel.