For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 12, 2019

let us hope Michael does not get a dope slap when finding out the blower needs gasoline

You mean easier, not faster, Mike. If you’re talking faster, you’d have shoveled and be done hours ago. Nah, you did not want hard labor. You wanted a machine to do the work for you but the irony…you labored to warm it up. The logic of a teenager.

Let me see, have I ever spent 15 minutes to a half-hour looking for the power screwdriver instead of getting the job done in 5 minutes? No not me, never, at least not today…..

A shovel is probably more reliable, Michael.

Well, its a question of how much longer it takes to start the blower. If Dad is right, and it just needs to be warmed, then wouldn’t the time from now until the snow is blown be shorter than the time from now until the snow would be shoveled? Sounds like Lynn does not trust Dad!

I make two tracks down the driveway with the shovel when it is only 3 or 4 inches of snow. Not worth the effort to move the snowblower around.

If you live in REAL snow country and have a driveway longer than 10 feet, the thinking goes like this: “There isn’t THAT much snow today, but I’d better fire up the snowblower just to make sure it’s working right. The forecast is for 18” of heavy stuff tomorrow. No way I’m moving THAT by hand."

Then if you have trouble getting it going, you figure “Well, I’ve GOT to get it running anyway. I can either shovel by hand and then fool with it, or I can fool with it and then use it to shovel. Plus, it will be a good test.”

Is there gas in it, Michael?

Michael shoveling is better for your health.

If there’s fuel and spark, temp shouldn’t matter too much. It’s nothing ether couldn’t overcome.

Mike’s teenage logic reminds me of one of the most “teenage logic” things I’ve ever done.

My mother wanted me to vacuum the whole house (2 stories, all carpeted) twice a week and the furniture once a week when I was in high school. So, thinking I’d save time as well as stick my nose up at her demands, I would get the vacuum out, wrestle it up and down the stairs, leave it unplugged, and run it across the carpet so it looked like I vacuumed.

It was years later that I realized I had been doing the same amount of work that I would have done, had I actually just vacuumed.

Rebuild the carb. All those years of leaving it with gas in it allowed the gas to dry to a varnish, thus clogging up something in the carb.

Should have said, “It’s a guy thing” Been there done it. lol

Shovels are fine for teens, older folks not so much. My father died of a coronary at 61 shoveling, and had no prior history of heart issues.

Fact! In the hour he spent trying to get the blower to work he could have shoveled the entire walk.

He’s having more fun futzing with the snowblower than the perceived agony of shoveling.

I wonder if it has any gas in it.

Get your dad to show you how to start it if it is cold….

This kid is so lazy….be easier to shuffle and deal with the blower.

Wait until Elly finds out what Michael has been doing with her hair dryer.