While the other is away…

A number of years ago, on a cold blistery day in January, my grandma fell off the roof and broke her lower vertebrate. One might wonder what an elderly woman was doing on the roof; shoveling snow… most obviously. Any reasonable person would understand the potential for water damage from mounting snowfall. Any reasonable person would also understand that a sixty year old woman should not be contracted for this type of work. The only reason that she even undertook such a task was because my grandfather had left to go to the store. Knowing that he would stop such a ridiculous feat, my grandmother waited until he had left to begin her covert operation.

And now the favor has been returned in full….

Recently my grandpa has been feeling short of breath and his blood pressure has been quite high. Doctors have done testing, but so far, cannot find cause for the high blood pressure. They’ve put him on medication to reduce the pressure and that has helped, but they have told him that, even with medication, physical activity will be strenuous for his heart and should really be avoided. Understandably this is not liberating news for a man who walks 4 miles a day and takes great pride in maintaining his yard.

In attempt to help him this winter, his kids each chipped in to hire someone to plow his driveway. Typically when you contract with a plow, there are snow requirements that must be met before the plow will actually come. For example, snowfall must exceed three inches before it is necessary to remove snow.

This past weekend we had a small snowfall of about 2 inches. Listen Lady, this would no doubt shut down Atlanta or Washington, D.C, but we live in Rochester; two FEET of snow will not shut our city down.  Since it was just a light dusting, the snowplow did not come and plow my grandfather’s driveway. Personally, I’d rather trudge through 2 inches of snow then take the time to shovel the driveway in the bitter cold. This is, unfortunately, not the case for grandpa.

Even though the doctor had told him physical exertion would not be helpful to his current condition, he was ready to jump right behind his snow blower.  Luckily my grandma had her wits about her this time and convinced him otherwise. Or so she thought….he waited until she had left for church before he cleared the snow from the driveway. Oh how the other shoe drops.

The morale of the story is: Wait until your other counterpart leaves to perform incredibly dangerous mission.