Remember that old commercial, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."
Let's just add insult to injury and dump 3”—10” of snow on our already battered coastline. Add a 2.2 earthquake in northwest Jersey earlier in the week, then Hurricane Sandy (and its aftermath), and you discover just what you are made of!
Scoffing at the predicted snowfalls, and trusting in the fact that I live on the beach and that there really wouldn’t be any snow because the ocean warms up the air, I went off to work wearing dress clothes and cute shoes: I am girlie some days. (Yep, that was one really long run-on sentence.)
Big regret! We had inches of nasty wet ‘n heavy snow! The only smart thing I did was wear the parka with the hood and fleece lining. I rummaged for the scraper in wheel well of the trunk, knocked off 3” of snow all-around the car, and practically needed to do it 2x, that snow was tenacious.
On my way home, I stopped off at my favorite store—Home Depot—and picked up several bags of ice melt for the apartments. Now I have to give thanks to their great employees, those bags are HEAVY and I can only lift two bags into a cart, but no more. I have conveniently ‘borrowed’ many a women’s husband to load the cart for me. This time I simply walked over to the Greeter, Dave, and drafted him to load my cart. Without a blink, he loaded mine and another woman’s cart: Much appreciated.
Down to the PROs desk, and yes, they missed me: Big hugs from Joey and John. We all asked how everyone made it through the hurricane, how we all were bearing up. After I made the purchase they loaded up my car. Thanked them both profusely, then headed home with the precious cargo.
We have two fairly new tenants, and they have quickly learned just how different storms on the beach are from storms just a few miles inland and they have pitched in to help. Both were concerned about the slippery stairs and asked us if they could put out the ice melt. Really, they asked permission to help me out?! They are soooo keepers! They found buckets and scoops, and put the ice melt on both stairwells. It was storming, cold and nasty, and they worked hard without looking for any $$ or credit.
Later, I went out with my trusty corn broom and cleared a path down the stairs and around the decks, just enough to hold us until morning when the storm would break: The cold and wind was too brutal to work in even with heavy boots and gloves.
The next morning, Mr. I'm-In-Charge was out there, shovel in hand, bragging how he had shoveled the decks for several hours the night before, then again in the morning, and was basking in the thanks. Really? Because I was up until 1:30 a.m. and didn’t hear any sounds on the decks, and the same snow that I left outside my door the night before, was still there in the morning. While he was bragging to us just how hard and long he worked, I reminded him that three others, including myself, had worked on those decks DURING the storm and that snow was STILL there when I got up: That correction earned me several days of the silent treatment. No loss. He only helps for $$ and full credit.
Like I stated earlier, under stress, “you discover what you (and others) are made of.”
A wonderful surprise when I opened my door that morning was seeing my car glistening in the morning sun, with all the snow cleared off, and that sweetheart even lifted my wipers up off the glass. Aaaahh, that tenant is a keeper! I want more like her.
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