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When you live in Minnesota you pay the price for saying things like, “You know, I may not have to use the snowblower all year.”

That was Sunday.

Not that we’re getting buried in multiple feet or coated in ice or anything. This week’s new blanket of snow was fairly mundane as snowfall goes. We were supposed to get between 3-5 inches by the time it was all said and done and with my best Minnesotan eye for snowfall I would say that we have reached that.

Still, it doesn’t take away from the idea that we don’t, when it comes to weather, look a gift horse in the mouth or take for granted anything that might be happening in order to guess what could happen.

Regardless, it resulted in my getting up at 5:30 a.m. and turning on the snowblower I was sure I wouldn’t use this year, at the nice early hour of 6 a.m. — much to my neighbor’s joy I’m sure.

In spirit at least, I did first attempt to shovel the driveway. You all already know how I feel about winter and it remains my favorite time of year above all other seasons. As part of that, I’m not afraid to admit that I enjoy shoveling. To me, it’s a lot like getting in the garden and weeding. With each weed pulled, more and more of the stresses and anxieties of the day leave my mind and I’m  just left to clean up the crops as you will.

Same with shoveling. You guide the shovel down the drive-way or the sidewalk and with each swipe it all life becomes simplified.

Also, I just enjoy being out in the cold and enjoying the frigid temps. It makes coming into the house and grabbing a fresh cup of coffee or hot chocolate that much more enjoyable.

But I have limits and today those limits were heavier, wetter snow. It took me one swipe to realize that while there wasn’t that much, it was heavy and wet enough to cause me to rethink my early morning shoveling excursion.

Just because I like the season, doesn’t mean I’m ready to throw my back out.

Of course, this all leads up to the satire of a morning themed by complacency. Because of our lack of snow so far, I never really gave the snowblower itself much of a thought.

And when I did this morning, I realized that I probably would need to fill the tank with gas. The problem was that the gas can was completely empty. I eyed as best I could how much was in the tank and agreed with myself that there might be enough to finish it all or at the very least, enough of the driveway to limit the backbreaking part of the chore.

Then on a whim, I checked on the oil and found that it was very low as well.

Feeling like a homeowner failure, I decided ultimately there was enough of both, but that the situation necessitated a certain amount of hustle.

What followed was a NASCAR level of snowblowing. I roared down the driveway at breakneck speed, or as breakneck as the snowblower would allow. My turns were expert and didn’t waste time with opportunities to pick up a second here and there.

On the fly I discovered a new route to circumvent time spent in previous years, expertly turning down the sidewalk when needed in one long pattern that made the process more efficient.

The snow was getting tossed everywhere, but not without planning and, dare I say, the skill of a lifetime of snowblowing. Every fallen flake had its place in our yard. Even the house was spared it’s usual coating of snow along the siding as I was able to distribute the snow in such a way as to create minimal work in the future.

It was one of my best snowblowing jobs in years, done in such a way as to create time to even sit down and enjoy a little more coffee before getting ready for work.

I don’t mind saying that everything was expertly done, and all of it was in the face of said complacency that I often suffer from in a variety of areas.

The only thing left to contemplate is why did I write an entire column on snow blowing?