The Snowplows Are Keeping Me Up!

Snow removal companies have guidelines for when they start plowing to make the event as quick and painless as possible. They will usually wait until the snow stops unless it will be a big snowfall, then they will plow the areas twice. Once half way through, and once after the snow has stopped. This, inevitably, results in plowing during the early morning hours so everyone can get out to go to work in the morning.

One morning, I was listening to my voice mail when I first got in at 8:30am. There was a message from a distraught homeowner that went something like this: "It's 12:30 in the morning and the snowplows are keeping me awake. I have a test in the morning and I have to get some sleep. I am going to call the Village because I have a right to 'peaceful enjoyment' of my home and this is a disruption!"

The next voicemail I got was from the same homeowner. "It's now 2:30 in the morning and they are still out there. I need to get my sleep and obviously, calling the management company does NO good!"

I contacted the snow plow operations director and apologized if his guys got the police called on him. He said they didn't. I went about my day and about 4pm, I sent the homeowner an e-mail asking "How did you do on your test?" I got a response the next morning thanking me and telling me the results, but no comment about the snow plows. Being winter in Chicago, it began to snow again that day, but the snowfall lasted a bit longer, so the plows didn't go out until about 4am.

The next morning, I got this voice mail from the same homeowner: "I just wanted to thank you for whatever magic you did. The snow plows came much later this time and they are soooooo much quieter!"