sides
So we live on a corner in a “Managed Community”, right? That means a couple of things - first Home Owners Association - HOA for short. It’s where a bunch of anal-retentive, high-strung homeowners get together and make rules that nobody else would think of. Like - if you put up a basketball goal, the backboard must be clear or match the color of your house AND it cannot be attached to the garage.
There are some perks - like we have our own snowplow removal. Which gets us cleared streets before anybody else that we know. We loved our snowplows. I’ll get back to this in a minute.
They also have some other rules that make us responsible for shoveling the snow off the sidewalk that goes down the side of our fence off the main street. The problem is that side of the house faces north. That means it hardly ever gets sun - so the melt has been brutally slow.
BUT - Amy and I were going to make the big push this week to get it done.
That is until this morning.
I’m sipping my hot green tea when the house starts rattling. It’s our community snowplow. Which is incredibly odd given that it hasn’t snowed for a week AND it’s been upper 40’s/lower 50’s the last couple of days. Which coincidently has made the long sidewalk doable. Only a foot or so of snow to get rid of - which made us hopeful to get it shoveled.
Then we peek out our kitchen window to see the plow pushing snow off the corners of the street on top off my sidewalk.
I just looked at Amy.
“I’m so not shoveling that walk now and the minute the HOA complains about it, I’m opening up a can of THIS on them.”
I’ll keep you posted.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Dad // Feb 20, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Hey man you got help with the drive what else do you want? Why don’t you park your cars over there next to the walks and let you exhaust melt the snow.
2 MikeS // Feb 20, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Remember, “Love your enemies.” Even if they’re anal-retentive, rule-making, need-to-get-a-life neighbors.
And if you do open a can of THIS on them, do it in a Christ-like manner.
3 ray // Feb 21, 2007 at 8:52 am
Ahhhh … the gentle winds of rebuke ….
From the land of no snow - Ray
4 kris-k // Feb 21, 2007 at 9:34 am
a can of …. what…????
(j/k)
5 Amy // Feb 21, 2007 at 11:31 am
Okay… It is official. I started about 1 1/2 hours shoveling the sidewalk and our neighbor Noel came over with his snowblower and finished the rest!!!!!! This is an awesome neighborhood.
6 MikeS // Feb 21, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Yea Amy!! Glad you were out there instead of Grant. You are so much more spiritually mature.
Of course, this coming from someone who has never had to shovel snow!
7 Kelsey // Feb 22, 2007 at 10:42 pm
*Shakes fist at home owners associations of the world* Our HOA likes to leave a notice on your car if the front end is overhanging onto the sidewalk even a teeny tiny bit.
8 Rick // Feb 24, 2007 at 10:54 am
Grant, I couldn’t be more disappointed. #1 it is a law in Parker to have your walks cleared within 24 hrs. Kids use walks to get to school, and other family members use them too. There are lots of communities you can live in Denver that don’t have an HOA, it a free country, but you signed up for the HOA when you bought your house. Maybe it snowed today so you could get a do-over and be a good neighbor.
9 Grant // Feb 24, 2007 at 11:57 am
Kids don’t walk anywhere in Parker.
They ride, pedal, scoot, drive, and bike - but I’ve yet to see a single kid in the entire city walk as much across the street.
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