<p>AAAGGHHH :eek:</p>
<p>Seriously, during my junior yr of college a few friends and I took a drive up to Canada for a week of skiing at Mt. Tremblant. (This was in the height of the gas crisis, with long lines at the pumps and stations closed on Sundays. Never said we had any sense…) Anyway, to be safe, I had a BIG snowshovel in the trunk of my 1971 Plymouth Satellite, just in case. Well, it didn’t come in too handy when the ball bearings in one of my wheels went on the drive up, but after sweettalking some nice mechanic on I-87 (the NY Thruway) we were back on the road again.</p>
<p>Skiing was fun, but conditions weren’t too great. Didn’t get that big dump of snow until the night we RETURNED to Poughkeepsie. Got something like 16" of snow. So, the next morning, lots of people were in the student parking lot digging out their cars. Big party atmosphere. Big piles of snow on the cars… But wait! I remembered I had a big snowshovel in the trunk! So, I pulled it out and decided to remove a large pile of snow from the hood in one fell swoop. So, I took the shovel and scooped up a big pile of snow from the front hood. Uh… snowshovels aren’t flat on the bottom. They have a little curve in the center where the handle connects to the metal blade. I heard a loud “screeeeech”, only to discover that in addition to removing a large quantity of snow, I’d also removed a large quantity of green paint from my hood. 
And, to add insult to injury, as was so often the case when you dig out your car, as soon as you are all done, the snowplows come along and plow the snow right up to your car again!! I’ve had enough of that. Give me a heated driveway, a HS kid with a snowblower or a condo in the mtns with a concierge!! I also don’t miss all the rock salt leaving white stains on my black shoes…</p>