Bill, I'd like to add just a couple more things to your excellent post. I use a snow blower when the snow is pretty wet & heavy as well as the plow bank for our double wide driveway. For our driveway, I usually push snow systematically into piles and then use the snow blower to remove it from the driveway. I then go over things again with a push shovel to remove any extra I missed. Our driveway is usually bare asphalt most of the winter. Although I don't solicit them, many people compliment my wife and me on how snow free our sidewalk and driveway stays in the winter. For the 191 feet of public sidewalk I have (live on a corner lot) I usually start on one side and take the snow blower ahead maybe 15 or 20 feet. I then back it up and go along the opposite edge of the sidewalk for the same 15 or 20 feet. I then grab my shovel which I left in the snow bank at the point I used it last to quickly clean up any the snow blower missed or left behind due to the walk being uneven etc. If it is a light snow I usually just shovel for the exercise but being blind and using a snow blower is doable.
Al Message----- From: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com [mailto:blindhandy...@yahoogroups.com]on Behalf Of Bill Gallik Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 7:53 PM To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] electric snowblower Scott, From your question, I'm surmising you don't think a blind person can operate a gasoline snowblower? Oh contraire my friend, I am the only one here and even if I weren't I'd still be in charge of clearing the snow with my 8 HP snowblower. Certainly a blind person isn't going to be quite as efficient as a sighted person probably duplicating effort several times. But I've developed a system for clearing the snow from the garage area parking and my friends tell me I do an incredibly good job of it. Now the sidewalks are simply a matter of feeling; I can tell when I've strayed off the sidewalk from the feeling that comes from the snowblower housing sliding on grass instead of sidewalk concrete. And the deck (when I decide to pull the machine up there) is very easy to tell. I've been known to put an auxiliary hood over my head backwards. This is a real hoot because passing motorists (at least 1 out of 3) slows down to rubber neck. I do it on exceptionally cold days and I figure, "Why expose any flesh at all?" So, my answer to your question is a definite "YES," a blind person could run an electric snowblower! ---- Holland's Person, Bill - "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." - US Humorist, Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
