A Man's Machine...

We awakened Sunday morning to about four inches of freshly fallen snow. This was four inches on top of the several feet already piled up along the side of the driveway. I would have been thrilled at piles of snow this large when I was growing up. Not only would we have built snow forts and skating rinks, but we would have almost certainly gotten one or more days off school while the city and county fought to return the streets to a safe state.

This year marks thirty years since I moved to Wisconsin and, if there is one thing I have learned through the decades it is that snow is not a big deal. I have missed exactly one day of work due to weather during those three decades.

We just deal with it.

A Man's Machine

I deal with it by firing up my machine. It's not just any machine, mind you; it's A Man's Machine!

By summer; it's a 26 inch brush mower - able to take down saplings up to 1-1/2 inch in diameter. You can see that attachment on the left edge of the accompanying photo.

By winter; it's a 30 inch snow blower - able to make short work of any snowstorm thrown at it thus far.

I love firing up my machine; whether for clearing brush from our wooded yard or clearing snow from our driveway.

Our driveway is a fourteen foot wide patch of asphalt that spans nearly one hundred feet before spreading out to a 34 foot wide path for the final 30 feet. All told; I get to run my machine over about 2,400 square feet of asphalt when the flares at the top and bottom of the driveway are figured in.

It's a job for A Man's Machine!

Matthew offers to help when it's time to fire up the machine. I must constantly remind him, though, that he is not allowed to use it. The instructions plainly state that children should not be allowed to operate this machine and he is and will forever be, after all, my child. He immediately gets puffed up and reminds me that I'm an old man and should leave the work like that to the young and strong like himself.

Thus begins the back and forth argument about each other's fitness for operating A Man's Machine.

The truth is that age and arthritis have combined to limit my ability to do many things. Fortunately, though, they have not yet robbed me of the pleasure of firing up my machine and clearing brush or blowing snow. While I often let Matthew take over the task for a while; I make sure he knows that I am violating the instruction manual by letting a child take control of such a powerful machine.

It is, after all, A Man's Machine...