5 am, I open the garage and call for my combatant to arms. Actually I do this by scraping the snow shovel on the ground over and over. I though that was a road warrior-lord of the flies-type call.

My driveway(here forth know as my thunderdome) is filled with a slushy mixture that will melt as soon as the sun comes up. Doesn’t matter, I shovel.

I hear his garage door open, I see that the early hour of our meeting has give me the edge,Huzzah!

The kids going to school choose to walk on my side of the street rather than that icy bog he has on his side. Victory is mine!

I bid him a hale fellow well met, I do this by raising my shovel in a mock salute after which I turn on my heel on enter my garage. A job well done, a battle won.He no longer is the snow-master of Willow street. There’s a new sheriff in town and he has the uncanny ability to take a silly imagined slight and turn that into an epic struggle between good and evil.