Comment by donatj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by donatj | Hacker News Reader

I live in Minnesota and do not own a snowblower. Probably my mistake, but I always joke that I get most of my exercise in the winter. Snow is really heavy for those without context.

A couple years ago we had a particularly bad snowfall. The plow has a nasty hate filled habit of dumping all its snow in my driveway. I had a drift at the end of my driveway about 4 feet high and 6 feet deep. Literally up to my chest. I had spent a solid hour just chipping away at it trying to get my car out and had made very little progress.

Right as I was about to give up in frustration, a man in a bobcat drove by. Moments later he turned around, came back, and asked "would you like me to clear that for you?" I told him that would be amazing. Took him a couple minutes and then he waved and drove off before I got a chance to offer him any money or even thank him.

I think about this guy pretty often, it's absolutely the random act of kindness in my life I have appreciated most.

A recent lesser snowfall for context:

https://imgur.com/a/1un20s7

Just be wary as you get older. The number of old men who die from heart attacks while shoveling snow is nonzero

Isn't "number of old men who die from heart attacks while doing anything is non zero"?

Shoveling snow is a well-established high risk factor for older adults.

For fat people, getting over heated when doing things is generally the limiting factor on how strenuous one can push the body. In the cold you can exercise a lot harder before you get too hot, so the person can stress the body more than they usually would.

It’s the going from zero to 100 that gets folks it seems.

Deep, heavy, wet snow is called heart attack snow for a reason. It sneaks up on you - a driveway you just cleared for years with normal snowfalls is all of a sudden a 10x workout from usual, and your brain doesn’t completely process this. Anything else at that level of intensity would likely trigger you to take breaks.

That said - I think inactivity is far worse. But I still make a point to go shovel my elderly neighbors walks here in Chicago before they have a chance to do it when we get particularly deep snowfalls.

In the cold. The exercise-plus-hypothermia combo is a bad one. Pick one, not both.[1]

[1] https://shine365.marshfieldclinic.org/heart-care/prevent-hyp...

The number of old men who die from doing no exercize is also quite high.

My grandfather was a farmer and scarcely went a day without hours of exercise in his life. He passed away after a heart attack while shoveling his paraplegic neighbor's driveway.

You don't have to be unfit to get done in by shoveling snow.

It doesn't snow much where I live. Why is shovelling snow so deadly? Don't people stop for a rest when they get tired?

Physically it is very taxing. Snow is heavy, and the movements aren’t typical of daily activity. Even for a modestly sized property it can take awhile.

I think it’s a combination of incredible weight, lots of aerobic activity, and the cold which masks some of the fatigue that might tell you to take a break. I am over 40, and over an inch or two just pay someone to deal with the snow.

Snow can be very heavy depending on the water content. So sometimes it's really light and basically effortless to shovel, but sometimes each shovel full of snow is 10-20 pounds of weight that you have to throw over and over. That gets taxing very quickly, plus people don't generally warm up before doing this intense exercise.

It's not like shoveling snow is super dangerous. Most people don't die from shoveling the snow. But it can happen and it's worth slowing down and taking breaks.

The heart attack danger is a perfect storm of two factors that do not normally occur together:

1) Extreme physical exertion - sudden, intense arm-heavy exercise often as a Valsalva maneuver (straining and holding the breath). This dramatically increases blood pressure, which puts acute stress on the heart and arteries.

2) Exposure to cold air exacerbating the strain on the heart with vasoconstriction (blood vessel constriction). Cold temperatures cause peripheral blood vessels (arteries and veins) to narrow. This forces the heart to work harder to pump blood through the constricted vessels to keep the body warm, leading to an increase in blood pressure. The combination of constricted vessels and high physical exertion means the heart needs significantly more oxygen to function, but the cold and high pressure can limit the blood and oxygen flow (myocardial oxygen demand is increased). Breathing cold air can also trigger constriction in the coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle itself, further increasing the risk of reduced blood flow and a heart attack.

I remember a friend who was really into his skiing telling me that ski instructors take bets on which overweight 50+ year old first time skiing city person would have the a heart attack first.

The fix for never exercising isn’t to blow the buildup into your heart all at once…………….

My ninth grade English teacher never made it back from Christmas break because of this.

>Snow is really heavy

after a nar nar day in pow pow cuttin freshies up to your nippy nips, you'll change that assessment!

(my email address was once inadvertently put on a mailing list for the planning of a bachelor party ski weekend, people I did not know or have any connection to, and that's the way they talked. i enjoyed it so much i didn't confess till they demanded to know why i hadn't RSVPed yet)

> after a nar nar day in pow pow cuttin freshies up to your nippy nips

Translation, please?

nar nar = from gnarly meant in the sense of "great"

pow pow = is powder, powdery snow

cuttin = skiing (i.e. leaving a trail behind you after cutting through the snow)

freshies = means fresh, new; not clear in this context, it could refer to "fresh snow" or "fresh tracks"

nippy nips = depth of snow is up to your nips (nipples) and you are cold/excited/goosebumps so your nips are nippy

this is generalized "california surfer talk"; the type of western man who surfs also snowboards, dirt bikes, jet skis, etc as well as clings to a teenaged hangout burnout lifestyle

I'm convinced bobcats (used generically) are the single most versatile and useful platform ever created. They're fun to drive and you can solve most problems with them. Not optimally for any specific task, but if something needs to be pushed or lifted or moved or pulled or flattened or piled, you can find a way.

An 863 with hi-flow 2 speed and a pivoting plow was the most ideal snowplow I've ever played with.

You’d likely be interested in the history of the Bobcat (tm)

https://youtu.be/bfgEr-nPCv8?si=Q8dbWlLZcdyU2enj

Plot twist: He just wanted an excuse to try out his new snowblower.

There’s more of this than you might expect. First time I got to turn on my new Toro I went the entire way around the block.

The other side of the equation is my now dead toro had me covered in gas, frozen fingers, and plenty of swearing, with an itching desire to light it ablaze in the middle of the yard.

Tis the cycle of snow blower ownership.

That’s just an excuse to upgrade to the new hotness!

I have a firm suspicion that blowers last a number of seasons, not a number of runtime hours.

That's my take as well. Years 1 & 2 are always flawless, 3 may have a few situations and 4/5 start bringing the swearing causing problems.

Naturally, I don't maintain it very well throughout the years, but always mean to. I'm sure mine needs a new carb / cleaned, but happen to have lots of cabinet work going on in the shop where it's warm and oil/gas isnt happening there at the moment. Maybe on a "nice" day I'll rip it apart outside.

Or already eyeballing a new 'husky'!

can you blame him? guy has a Bobcat!

Plausible. When I got a new trailer for my bike that could haul 300 lbs I just wanted to find someone who needed a sofa moved for free.

Yep this is me. I get super pumped whenever we get a snowfall large enough to justify pulling out my ridiculously overkill snowblower.

The entire block on both sides plus the alley gets done those days. Neighbors here at first were skeptical since I guess it’s not normal (it is in Minnesota - every block there has a hero) for the big city, but now I get treats from various houses that catch me doing it.

I honestly do it for the pure joy of using awesome equipment I could otherwise nowhere remotely justify purchasing. Plus knowing I’m helping out my community in a small way is a nice bonus. Also helps me meet people and be social as an introvert.

If you shovel the curb on your street “up stream” from the plowing direction, it provides a place for the plow stream to go and significantly reduces the amount of soon-to-be rock hard snow you’ll have to clear from your driveway.

I wish I could see the photo but I live in the UK…

Don’t worry, both you and especially your children are safe from seeing the picture of the snowdrift.

LOL

https://rimgo.vern.cc/a/1un20s7

Thanks

prob time to get a snowblower

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