Four Letter Words

So I'm going to start out my 2009 posts with a bitch session. Well it might be more of a whine session. You decide. We got more snow recently out here in CNY. I have not seen this much snow since I was a kid vacationing at Grandma & Grandpa's house but my definition of what "a lot of snow" was probably skewed cuz I was smaller then. During my adult life so far I have not seen this much snow. Working in it is not fun. I have truly come to hate shoveling. Granted I shovel on a grander scale than most. I have no sympathy for anyone who complains about shoveling their driveway. Try shoveling out a Zoo. To me now snow is truly a 4-letter word.

Ok so yes we have a plow on our tractor and snow blowers at the Zoo, but those things can't always go where I need them to. Well, perhaps they could but would Maintenance let me take one? Not sure. I don't know how to use one, but I get the premise. I would just need someone to show me the little details about running one. Something I may look into and see if Maintenance would give lessons. They seem pretty protective about them though.

Anyway, I have done a lot of shoveling. Not just pathways to my animal exhibits but I have to shovel paths inside the animal exhibits. The animals deserve walkways too. Especially for some of my animals that aren't from wintry areas. I feel bad for those animals the most. I don't mind giving my animals paths to walk on where they aren't hoof, paw, or claw deep in snow, it's just that it takes so effin' long to accomplish this task. Almost half the day is gone and I've not yet cleaned or fed anyone. I'm too busy getting to them! It sucks. What a pain, literally. Great workout though.

We've had a lot of snow fall here thus far. Not sure if it's more, less or about right for this area. We've got at least 2 feet maybe more on the ground right now. I have snow piles in exhibits that are almost as tall if not taller than I am. That really makes it hard to see the animal(s) in that area and even more so when I have to shovel again. I am running out of places to put the snow where it's not in the way of something. Very frustrating.

Now the other night is rains, so now everything is ice. I think I'd prefer snow. Granted I don't have to shovel ice, but I have to chip it or throw sand on it. All of my nice shoveled paths are icy. We don't use salt because we would track it into the animal areas on our boots and that's not safe for the animals. At any rate I now need to haul sand around to make all those paths walkable and/or spend time chopping it which is not fun on the hands or arms. Plus getting hit with ice shrapnel hurts. Getting around at the Zoo is a fight to not slip and fall, not just because someone will see you fall and laugh, but no one wants to get hurt.

It's supposed to sleet/snow or both tonight which would really make for a craptastic day at work tomorrow. Pretty sure shoveling heavy and icy snow would truly suck. I'm looking forward to Spring but with that comes another set of problems. Not sure if there's a "good" season at the Zoo. Maybe just ones that don't suck as much.