Charitable collector

Yesterday the city received about a foot of snow. Before leaving for his vacation, my sweetie cleared our driveway of the precipitation that had already fallen – so when I got home yesterday after work, I was able to drive into our garage with relative ease.
(Thanks hon!)

Early this morning the city plow came through the neighborhood. While this was very helpful in clearing the roads, it had the negative side effect of pushing all of the snow from the street into the end of the driveway. When I got ready to leave the house this morning for my first appointment of the day, I was dismayed to find a good two feet of wet, heavy, packed snow/ice mix firmly in place where our driveway meets the street. I didn’t think I could just drive through it (because there were quite large chunks of ice embedded,
I was afraid I might damage my car), so I put on a hat, boots, and heavy winter coat, picked up a shovel, and started to chip away at the wet, heavy, packed snow/ice mix.

(I think the photo doesn’t do the situation justice; there’s a lot more snow here than what ‘appears' to be. And have I mentioned it’s quite heavy?)

Ten minutes into my clearing, the garbage man drove down the street for our weekly collection. I hadn’t put the trash can out yet, as I honestly couldn’t force it through the snow/ice barrier to get it to the curb – so when the garbage truck slowed toward our house, I looked up, smiled, and waved him along. We didn’t have much trash to collect this week, anyway. I wasn’t going to be upset if he passed us by.

However, the garbage man didn’t pass me by. Instead, he stopped his truck, leaned out, and asked (a bit quizzically), “No garbage today?” I looked up, smiled, and responded,
“No, not today. We’ll see you next week, though!” I waved, then resumed my chipping and shoveling.

The collector looked at me for about half a second, then asked, “Would you like some help?” and pointed to the snow pile I had barely put a dent in. I was slightly taken aback.
I responded, “If you would like to help, I would be very grateful; but I certainly don’t expect you to. I imagine you have a schedule to keep.” He replied, “No, it’s okay, I can help,” and with that he pulled a big shovel off the side of the truck, and went to work along side me.

Another 3-4 minutes later, we had successfully cleared the end of the driveway of most of the ice/snow debris. (Enough for me to get my car safely out into the street, anyway.)

(The driveway – successfully cleared.)

Seeing that my car was no longer going to be trapped in the garage, the garbage man said, “I think that should do it, no?” He put his shovel back on the side of his rig, and jumped back into the truck.

I smiled broadly. “Thank you SO much!” I said, as enthusiastically as possible.
“I really, really appreciate your help! That was very kind of you!”

The man replied, “Oh, it’s no problem. Now you won’t be late for work, right?”
He smiled good-naturedly, then pulled away, and drove off.

I was (and still am) so incredibly touched by this kindness. Pablo, you are fabulous!

I hope Pablo has a fantastic day, and that he receives some unexpected goodness in the very near future; I think it’s only ‘fair’ that he get back some of what he so freely offered me this morning.

Stef