Where’s my snowplow?

Yesterday, the first real snow of the season started to fall at around noon. Seven hours later, I decided to venture forth and pick up a few last-minute gifts for people I’d overlooked so far. My car half-drove, half-glided down the 4-inch-deep layer of snow on my suburban street, then onto the 4-inch-deep snow on the main road that feeds it, then onto the 4-inch-deep snow covering the four-lane road that leads to the highway, and then I struggled up an onramp covered in 4-inch-deep snow and proceeded to plod along to the mall at 30km/h through the 4-inch-deep snow on the highway.

Is there a pattern emerging here? Why was it that, seven hours after snow had started to fall heavily, the only place that had been plowed and gritted was the mall parking lot - privately? Do I pay municipal taxes out of the goodness of my heart?

I’m further curious to know as to why, in three successive winters in my current house, municipal snowplows have not once plowed my street, although they plow another one a hundred yards away. Do those residents pay taxes and I do not? Perhaps they have performed a small act of graft to the local authorities.

If I had a contract with a snowplowing company and they had performed this way, I would cancel it and look for another service. As it is, the government will take however much of my money they want to, give me whatever services they decide I’m entitled to, and treat me like the scum of the earth anytime I deal with them. I suppose I should just keep quiet like a good little subject, er, citizen.

And another thing. I pay the city $40 a month for a parking space downtown (private parking lots being hard to come by for an employee rather than a visitor). Was the parking lot salted and gritted? To answer, I think I’ll just copy-and-paste “4-inch-deep snow” again. I suppose I’m just paying the city government for their benevolence in refusing to sell the land to a private owner who might actually meet consumer demands, rather than just fleecing them.