Snow storms and samaritans

Snow storms and samaritans

We had thick, heavy snow Friday into Saturday making a mess of things. Usually it would have been no big thing, I’d have worked Friday from home, occassionally running my aged Ariens snowblower around the driveway to keep up with the mess.  This wasn’t usually, I had an important demo and had to trudge into Burlington, via the physical therapist’s office.  No big problems on the way in. 

I had every intent on getting back on the road at noon, but it didn’t happen.  Too many things todo, so I didn’t end up beating feet until about 6pm.  The entire drive, about 65 miles of it, was done at somewhere between 10-20 miles per hour.  Over 4 hours driving in a truck that is utterly painful on my knee. 

When I finally got out with the snow blower on Saturday, the snow was blue and heavily laden with the water it had sucked up over night. I managed to carve a path from the garage door down to the bottom of the driveway, then to clean the very bottom so I could get in and out, before moving back up to the top, where the primary auger started to make very strange noises. At first I thought I’d blown the belt, which isn’t tough to fix.  When I checked, I found the previous owner had used a bolt to connect the auger to the axle, instead of a shear pin.  The shear pin is designed to prevent the primary differential from getting torn up when you suck up your daughters skateboard, or a particularly tough piece of ice. 

So I stood at the bottom of the driveway pointing at the driveway and rubbing my fingers together in the international sign of money to every plow driver that went by.  Several shook their head as the past.  One fellow stopped and explained that the snow was too heavy, he’d been caught in several driveways that weren’t nearly as bad as mine.  But he promised to send his buddy by.  “His truck will go through anything.”

In the meantime a guy with a Chevy 2500 and a sweet boss plow stopped.  He got stuck twice and we had to dig him out, then finally gave up, having barely scratched off half of the mountainous crag that is my driveway.  In the meantime, the other driver’s friend had stopped by and moved on after I thanked him.

I finally gave up.  We’d gotten both cars to the bottom of the driveway, and we’ve now got a spot for them until the snow melts, as well as a decent path to them.

A little later, I was in the garage trying to pull the auger gearbox on the snow blower when a fellow with long hair and cowboy boots came walking up.  It was Les , the guy with the plow that will go anywhere. 

He said he’d noticed we didn’t get out.  It was too cold and the stuff had set for the night, but he could at least clean up the bottom of the drive.  So I pulled the truck out and he fixed up the bottom for me.  Then promptly refused payment.  “You’ve had a tough enough time today.  Besides, I like helping neighbors (turns out he lives about 1/4 mile down the road).” 

Most of us would certainly take the time to help a friend in need.  But how many of us would take the time to check back on someone they’d never met before?  Wes gets my good samaritan award of the week.  Oh,  by the way, he works at Bousquet’s in Manchaug.  If you’re in the Northbridge-Sutton-Douglas area, they handle towing and fuel oil.  If they have guys like Wes working for them, they’ve got to be good.

9 thoughts on “Snow storms and samaritans

  1. There’s a lesson in there about providing good customer service to non-customers, because they sure can turn into customers or references for you.I’m sure that youll be using Bousquet’s…

    Meanwhile, the good news is that it’s almost spring, so the polar ice cap in your driveway will be melting soon.

  2. My point exactly. One of our primary marketing contacts is our people. If they’re good, we’re off to a good start.

    On another note, I remember my Mother had a policy for her employees, who wore uniforms. If you’re headed for a bar after work, get changed. It was considered an extremely serious offense. She ran an ambulance company and frankly, the pr damage one drunk could do was serious.

  3. While looking for information on the snow blower, I came across a guy who rebuilt the exact same model with a new engine, etc. It’s a nice machine, although it’s 30 years old. Electric start would be nice…

  4. I have had the same kind of service from this Company. We were not(and I say were not)customers of Bousquet’s and our furnace went down. Of course it was on a very cold Saturday night and the company we were with said we would have to wait until Monday. NO heat til Monday…I called Bousquet’s and within a couple hours we had heat.
    Now I have a new Oil Company.

  5. Follow up…the snow has softened and Wes just showed up at the house to clean up the driveway. He’s absolutely tops in my book…

  6. Ah, another of the subtle joys of middle age…

    I fixed the post, and I’ll mention that he did stop back yesterday and get things all cleaned up. Pass along my word of thanks!

  7. Les is my husband, thanks for saying such nice things about him…i think he’s wonderful but not everyone agrees, he’s been showing off your blog to everyone, it made him feel really good to be appreciated

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