Tag: wovel

Taking the Rest of the Day Off

Five hours.

Yep, Five hours. I wovelled my ass off today. I did it in two shifts. The first go ran from 10 am to 2. I added an hour after the snow stopped falling.

Image
Looks weird. Works wonderfully. Look at how much snow is on that sucker!

Mrs. Rootchopper had to work so I was working solo. If I didn’t own a wovel, I’d be dead now. I used a conventional shovel for a small amount of the work around the edge of the cars but otherwise it was me and my fulcrum. (Wasn’t that a Harry Nielson song? I guess not since nothing rhymes with “fulcrum”.)

In spots, our 4 or 5 inches of snow was really 2 or 3 inches of snow on top of two inches of heavy slush. It was a work out. I will have awesome triceps from pushing down on the handle of the wovel. They will hurt like hell. In fact, by about 9 a.m. on Wednesday I’m gonna be in a world of hurt.

For now, I am taking the rest of the day off. 

 

 

 

 

 

Back Out, Day 10: A Wovely Day

It snowed last night. At daybreak we had about 6 inches of snow on the ground. The bottom inch was very wet so this was particularly heavy stuff. As readers of this blog know, I’ve been having back spasms for about ten days now. I was little worried that my back would not be up to clearing all the snow. So I bought a Wovel.

Today, I put my contraption to the test.

Madman with Wovel
Madman with Wovel

Damned if it didn’t work like a charm. 

It took a while to get used to, but after about 15 minutes I was shoveling like a maniac. Of course, I looked a bit like a maniac but if I gave a damn about appearances I wouldn’t ride a recumbent bike. The important thing is shoveling with my Wovel didn’t hurt my back at all. My triceps and legs got a bit of a work out though.

Mrs. Rootchopper used a conventional shovel to clear the steps in front of the house and remove snow from around the perimeter of the cars. A neighbor came by and cleared a path on the sidewalk across the street with a small snow plow. I cleared the sidewalk on my side of the street with the Wovel. It probably takes twice as long to clear snow with a Wovel than my neighbor’s snow plow. (My Wovel is quieter and  won’t run out of gas.) It’s at least twice as fast as using a conventional snow shovel.

I’ll have to go back out later today and have another go when the second wave of snow comes through, but I am actually kind of looking forward to it.

Wovel on!

Here are some more pix.

Back Out, Day 8

After discovering some helpful stretches yesterday, I actually felt pretty good when I went to be. Pretty good doesn’t come close to normal function though. I can’t roll over in bed without help from my hands and legs so continuous sleep is hard to come by. When I woke up, I rose from the bed without pain. After fetching the paper, I checked myself in the bathroom mirror. My back should be an I but it’s still an S, albeit an S with less severe curvature. I figured if this keeps up, a ride to work this week would not be out of the question.

Gentle movement helps a bit. Being stationary seems to make things worse. I discovered this when I went to get out of the car at work. OWWWW. I made it to my desk. The relief of sitting at my desk was a comfort, until I had to get up and walk around. More owww.

I made it through a full workday, stopping occasionally to stretch my hip flexors and hamstrings every hour or so. Each time I did it, my back felt noticeably better.  Each time it would stiffen up again. During the drive home, I noticed that my back didn’t hurt when I hit bumps as it did over the weekend. I walked around the yard and my back 

During the day, I signed up for the Vasa ride in late March. I signed up for the 59-mile version but am considering dropping down to the 30 miler. (I can make it a 60-miler by riding to the start and riding home.) Either way, I’m getting some hot blueberry soup at the end from the Swedish embassy soup ladies.

I just learned that we might get 5 inches of snow later this week. I might just go out and buy a wovel. If I use a conventional shovel, I’ll be out of action for a month. I could even miss out on the hot blueberry soup. Not gonna happen.