Pay it Forward - Who Plowed My Drive?
With all the snow we've been having over the past few weeks, and all the shoveling we've been doing - it brings to mind a winter several years ago, when I still had a house full of kids, my built in crew, to help with the shoveling.
That winter we were hit with several snowstorms in succession too, and had quite a bit of accumulation. My neighbors were away on vacation and missed a biggy. Before they left, they asked us to keep an eye on things. We long ago entrusted each other with the keys to our respective homes and just in case the electricity went out, they wanted us to check that fridge, heat and water were all working fine.
We had no problem with any electricity outages during their absence, but we did have a huge snowstorm. It often takes a day or so, after a major dumping for some people to get their drives and walkways cleared, but beyond that small window of time, I always view an uncleared drive as an announcement to the world that that home is unoccupied.
Since I did give my word that I'd keep an eye on things I wasn't interested in announcing to the world that my neighbors were away (though it is a safe neighborhood, I wasn't taking any chances on my watch). I asked my hubby with some of my kids to go shovel a path down their driveway to their front door and leave some footprints in the otherwise virgin snow.
I guess my message got crossed because my husband heard only got part of it. He and the kids shoveled their whole driveway - not just a path to the front door!
When the neighbors got back from their vacation, they were delighted to see that their driveway was so well plowed. It seems that they hired someone to do their drive, but knowing that they were away, that guy left the plowing of their drive for last and by the time he got to it my crew had already been and gone.
He thanked us profusely though we thought it was no big deal. It's what neighbors do - they look out for each other and pay things forward.
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