Our driveway faces east. The wind generally comes from the south or southwest. When it snows and the wind blows, the snow piles up in front of the garage doors. That was the case again this morning. I went out, fired up the snow blower, and moved the snow off the left side of the driveway so Nina would not have to plow through the drifts when she came back from Visiting Teaching. The wind, however, was blowing most of the snow back in my face. I was getting rather tired of that, so I decided to go buy a ski mask and goggles. As I was putting the snow blower away, the city Big Dump Truck with the snowplow UP came down our street spreading anti-skid, turned around, and drove up the street dumping anti-skid. “At least,” I thought, “he didn’t plow in my driveway.”

I went in, shed my wet clothes, and dressed to go downtown ski mask and goggle shopping. As I started to back my car out of our garage, the city Big Road Grader came up the street in front of the house with plow DOWN, scrapped all the anti-skid off the street, and deposited it on the side of the road (and in the front of my driveway).

“My tax dollars at work!” I marveled.