The only light was coming from the street lamp, giving my car an almost ethereal glow. Snow was falling from the sky, as it had been for the past few hours while I worked my final shift at Liquid Art. It was one of those nights where so much snow was falling, the plow trucks had difficulty keeping up with the demand.
I like those kind of nights. And I certainly love that much snow falling. To go to work with the ground covered in brown and then step outside quite a few hours later to find everything covered in a blanket of white.
In this case, a very thick, heavy white. We were all laughing and joking around as we left the building, but as we approached our cars you could feel the noise getting picked up by the snow.
And so we set to work on our tasks: unburying our vehicles.
Now many people rejoice in having a garage so they can just pull out in the morning and set off to the mountain. Not so with me. I love shoveling off my car, especially when I haven’t had to do it in what feels like forever. It’s a chance to get to know the snow, to feel the texture and grain, similar to a layer test in avalanche territory.
In this case, a midnight test of the snowpack on my vehicle meant that it would be okay to sleep in on Sunday — no need to fight over blower pow when there wouldn’t be any.
And so I took my time, first clearing off the heavy snow on the driver’s door with my gloves. I like to make sure the doorway is clear before opening the door to prevent snow from dropping onto the driver’s seat and giving me a wet butt. The first layer was heavy, but the base layer kinda stuck to the car. This also implied that the drive home would probably be a very slow one, predictably greasy under the thick heavy wet stuff that would build a beautiful base for the fluff that would come on Monday.
I am currently having scraper issues, as in, I really don’t like the one I have now but it was all that was left at Home Depot last year when my old one broke. I was devastated. My old scraper brush and I had been through three cars together and this new one has a twist extender which means that the brush keeps rotating around in the heavy snow. I almost threw it across the parking lot but then I would have had to spend time finding it in the snow. So, instead, I just kept brushing away, using one hand to hold the brush and the other to keep the stupid thing from twisting.
Between the lights and the snow, it was a pretty zen 20 minutes. I like to work from the driver’s side door around the back of the car. I start at the top, brushing off the Yakima box with little jumps to get all the way across. Then, diving underneath the box and getting trapped in the cross bars, always wondering why someone has not yet developed a more snow friendly system.
Then I work my way down to the windows, first brushing then scraping. I like to do a vertical scrape on the windows, pushing the ice up and then doing the border as a circle. I’m not sure if there is one way to clean off a car, but this is mine. By the time I get to the front window, the defroster has kicked in and things seem to go a wee bit faster.
That is until you have to deal with the windshield wipers. I could probably write an entire chapter on how frustrating those can be to clean. No matter how little or much snow, you never seem to be able to get it all. Use the brush, use the scraper, then give up and use your hand. It never seems to work. I honestly want some kind of snow vacuum to get in there and get every nook and cranny.
The snow on the front hood merely slides off, and you know you’re in the home stretch. That is, unless it’s a really windy night and you have to go and redo the side windows again. But that always means that tomorrow is going to be a pretty damn good day of skiing.
And so I don’t mind cleaning off my car, once, twice or even three times a day. In fact, that’s one of the best feelings ever. Because if you’re cleaning snow off your car, there was snow on your skis. And nothing is more wonderful to a ski bum than having fresh snow.
Merisa Sherman is a long time Killington resident, local Realtor, KMS coach, Killington town Lister and member of the Development Review Board.
