I, for one, don't mind the snow all that much this year. Oh, I don't care for shoveling. Bad back, knee, shoulder and so forth you know. When it does snow I hope that it is enough to fire up the big snow thrower, so it's the dusting's that I don't much care for.

One thing here in Waukesha that I don't miss from my last house in Milwaukee is the fire hydrant in front of the house. As I was the one with it, I had a responsibility to my neighbors to see that should someone have a fire, the fire fighters could safely access and connect to it. That meant shoveling from it to the road and with enough space around it to put the wrench on the valve head and open it up.

The fire chief has made a goal of a maximum seven minute response time from alarm to the scene. I'm curious how many more minutes can be spent trying to get to a hydrant that is not shoveled out? Or if frantically digging one out, if anyone has slipped and fallen against one?

While driving around before last nights storm, I checked out the status of some fire hydrants in various areas.  I see that they vary from well done to "where in the snow bank is the darned thing?"

Check out the one closest to your house. You might want to check your smoke detectors and buy a fire extinguisher or two also in case you can't find it!