Snow and clearing snow

While the public sidewalks appear to have been cleared by motorized vehicles, or at least a machine with wheels and a plow, the drive that goes through our apartment complex is cleared by manual laborers. Who these people are or why the complex does not feel it would be better to invest in a vehicle is perplexing. As Rachel and I walked home from the metro last night, and as it continued to snow, we came across one of these workers. He had a large snow shovel and even waited for us to pass before continuing his work. While on the one hand I am blown away by this, it also makes some sense. The apartment complex has cars parked randomly all over, so there’s no real way that a vehicle could possibly be as thorough as a man with a shovel. At the same time, this is like saying that when you are painting walls, you should just use a paint brush because you would have to touch up the corners with a brush anyway.

The snow is simply beautiful as it has covered everything out at Kon’kovo and our forest, Bitsevsky Park is now, as Rachel said, a winter wonderland. I wrote this the morning of the 26th and the snow has continued to fall since then. In the city, the snow is slush, but out near our apartment, it’s still gorgeous.