I finished this morning with one last run across the sidewalk.

I went for one last pass last night between dinner and bedtime. The sun had set, but the snow glowed with the city lights bouncing off the clouds, and it was still fairly bright. It did make me again lament my broken spotlight; I didn't need it, and still think it's overkill. Still, it makes me a little mad that they wanted me to try to load this beast in some vehicle to take it to a shop to have them agree it's broken and install a new one.

In last night's run I was able to make it all the way past the houses that still needed to be cleared. The houses from the other corner had been cleared, evidently by someone with a similar idea, but a goal closer to that end of the block. I got past the neighbors on either side, and my house, of course. I met up with the cleared sidewalk on the far side and lumbered the beast back around. I cut another half-swipe on my return. I started trying a nearly full swipe, but it knocked too much snow onto the cleared bit, and I wasn't sure I had the battery power to make a third pass. I paused at my sidewalk and did the walkway toward the house, at least to the first step. I do wonder what it would take to make a stair-climbing snowblower, but this isn't one.

I made the half-pass about half-way down the block when the low-battery warning started again. I stopped blowing and just propelled back to the garage. I was pretty satisfied that the job was done well enough for the day. I plugged the battery into the charger and settled in, intent on not returning outside until morning.

In the morning, I dove right in. I pulled the battery and headed out to the garage. They hadn't taken the trash yet, and Monday's our usual day. So I spent a couple passes clearing the debris from that part of the driveway, which I'd skipped in the post-plow activities yesterday. I pulled the cans closer to the edge of the drive (it's about 8 feet) and cleared where they sat, too.

I powered through the alley and returned to the sidewalk. There were some chunks here and there, but not as much drifting as I thought there might be. I started in with a half-lane clearing at the end I didn't finish last night. I tried to turn up the first neighbor's walk to clear that, but I tried following the footprints in the snow, which went over the grass, not their walkway, which is curved and I couldn't remember exactly where, so I left it alone. I made it to the next neighbor who had shoveled their walkway, and quickly adjusted the chute to not flood it with debris. I got to the part that I'd made a half-pass on last night, and pulled over into the cleared area to get the debris and thicker bits. I did another neighbor's walk way, neatly marked with both footprints and solar lights on either side.

As I backed out of their walkway, the battery beeped and the motor died. Ugh! I gave the battery a test, and it showed 3/4 charge. I re-seated the battery and restarted the motor and it fired right up. I turned and finished quickly clearing the debris from the remaining sidewalk.

I finally got to my house!

My main goal this morning was to try to dig through the plow berm at the end of the sidewalk and clear enough to allow a person to walk through without climbing over too much. The berm stands thigh-deep, and instead of being the 18 inches of grass on that side of the walk, is about six or eight feet deep.  Especially in front of my house, I'd edged the snow blowing on the yard side of the sidewalk, with a good foot or more left on the street side, even after the second half-pass.  Plus the bit they've left on the street because they didn't plow all the way to the curb. I'm a little nervous they'll come with another plowing, but maybe the forecast of warm weather later this week will let them leave it be.

I slowly ground my way from the cleared sidewalk to where I was sure the front of the snowblower was floating on top of the snow on the street. I'd back up, move over a little and go again. It was thick and smashed together, and the single-digit temperatures last night helped freeze it even more. I didn't make it to the cement, really on a lot of the sidewalk, but I did clear a nice wide path. It's still chunky bits on the street side, but I'll get out there and shovel that clear after a bit.

I decided the few bits of debris that had fallen in the cleared walkway between my house and the rest of the block wasn't worth running out of battery, so I turned back and made a couple passes to remove the debris I had blown onto my sidewalk, and set off for the garage again. I blew a few bits here and there, and made it back to the garage with almost half a battery left. I wanted to put the snowblower again back behind my Jeep in the garage, but I didn't bring a Jeep key with me. I parked it again in front of the Jeep, and will have to monkey around with it later.

I'm talking myself out of going to get the hitch carrier I considered before, to take the snowblower to the house in Wisconsin. The snow is even deeper there, and I wonder if I could get my Jeep into the driveway, even with its big, fat, knobby snow tires and full-on four-wheel drive.  And then get it back again. Plus that driveway is as long or longer than my block, so if the last two days are an indication, it could take a few charges to get it done. That would require checking to see if they still had inventory, heading to St Paul, buying and mounting the thing, coming back to get the snowblower, securing it, and driving to the house in Wisconsin. Then, if there's any daylight left, either attempting to drive into the drive, or clear it with the snowblower before driving into the driveway. I could park on the garage apron, instead of the little grassy parking area, and spend the night, finishing what wasn't done before. Then I'd have to load and secure the snowblower, drive home, put the snowblower away, and figure out where to stow the hitch carrier when not in use.

I think I've talked myself out of it.