There are just some people who never seem to be satisfied with plowing no matter what the plow contractor does.

I was responsible for managing a 98 unit townhouse complex for a number of years and I handled any complaints that the residents had about services, such as plowing, as we couldn't have 98 owners individually giving their 2 cents to the contractors. Our plowing contract also covered the snow-blowing of sidewalks as well as the shoveling of the front steps. With 98 units, invariably someone would complain about something the contractor did that they didn't like, something the contractor didn't do that they didn't like, or the timing of something that they felt should have been done.

I had a good relationship with the contractor so he was very responsive to handling any of the complaints that I passed on from the residents. Some were perfectly valid complaints while others reeked with entitlement, like "I work and have to leave by 6am so I want my driveway plowed first." Obviously, lots of our residents also worked and also needed to get out early and not everyone could get their driveway plowed first.

I joked with my contractor that maybe he should offer a concierge plowing service. We could call it the Snowflake Club; any resident who wanted special plowing treatment could pay a fee and receive a special snowflake they could hang in their window to indicate that they were indeed a member of the Snowflake Club and were to receive special treatment. I'm so happy to no longer have this job.

Exactly this.

I’ve got a hightop Sprinter van and I wouldn’t even think of driving it on the road without clearing off the roof.

It’s not an easy thing either as I have to get out the telescoping ladder and the long handled SnoBrum. Getting all the recent ice off the top required some effort, but it’s important for the safety of others on the road.

You aren't likely to achieve positive change by being satisfied with just surviving. Pushing for some of the goals the OP mentioned is a good thing. None of the goals are likely to happen on their own without someone fighting for them.

My buddy and I were camped at Somerset campground in the Green Mountain National Forest last year when we watched a STARLINK satellite train pass just below our zenith. Amazing sight under dark skies. There are websites and apps that will give you the times for any predicted passes at your location if you wish to view one for yourself.

I have a two story townhouse of about 1300 sqft. Two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, kitchen, dining room, living room, and half bath downstairs.

About 10 years ago we had a 36000BTU Mitsubishi multi zone ductless unit installed with 4x 9000BTU interior wall units. One each in the dining room, living room, and the two bedrooms.

It keeps the place cool in the summer and warm in the winter unless we get below 20F, then I fire up the pellet stove.

It cost us about $11k. Our installation would have been less expensive, but I had to pay extra in labor to have them run the lines through an interior wall to the second floor instead of on the outside wall because our of our condo complex rules. Normally they’ll just run the lines on the outside wall and cover it with a line set covering that sorta resembles a gutter running on the side of the building. Faster and cheaper.

I actually used the efficiency specs for our heat pump to calculate cost to operate at various temperatures and was surprised to find that operating our heat pump is actually less expensive than running our pellet stove.

Actual use correlated well with the calculated savings to use the heat pump too.

I’ll switch over to the pellet stove only once temps fall to below 20F. It’s nice because where I’d buy and burn 3 tons of pellets in a winter, now I only go through a ton. Newer heat pumps are even more efficient than my system and can show saving even in subzero temperatures.

My first thought after seeing the post title was, "OMG, that knob from the other day is back".

Anytime anyone starts using “Taxachusetts” in their argument it’s a sign to me that they don’t know what the fuck they are talking about. Massachusetts falls near the middle in categories of top marginal income tax rate, sales tax rate, or property tax rate. This guy lives in RI which has a higher top marginal income tax rate, a higher sales tax rate, and a higher property tax rate so he’s pulling this whole “Taxachusetts” thing from his ass.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/110614/overall-tax-burden-state.asp

Studded snow tires are indeed great for ice, but they can actually reduce traction when the roads are clear because the studs reduce rubber contact with the road a little. Unless you are doing the majority of your driving on back roads that may stay snow/ice covered it’s hard to recommend studded snow tires when snow tires today, like Blizzak or X-Ice, give very good traction in snow/ice, but also great performance on cleared roads.

I’d certainly much rather live near a nuclear power plant than live near a coal fired power plant.

I’m ok with them decommissioning old nuclear power plants once they have a newer, safer designed plant built and operating. There are new designs that are essentially meltdown proof so no worries about “The China Syndrome“ happening.

Who told you that? Your brother Darryl or your other brother Darryl?

Nice, thanks. I'll definitely check that out and see if I can use it to improve my estimates.

Oil prices are likely going to be much more volatile than wood so be sure to factor that in.

I did a similar exercise a few years ago. My townhouse is all electric baseboard heat so after the first winter I got a wood pellet stove and that was so much cheaper to run.

Eventually, I installed a mini split heat pump system; the focus was to provide air conditioning in the summer, but you can also run it as a heater. In fact, after calculating the total costs, it turned out that heating with the heat pump was less expensive than hearing with the wood pellet stove. It’s that efficient.

I did calculations to determine the cost per BTU of heat for my different heating methods. I took into account the efficiencies of the heating systems and factored in the efficiency drop in the heat pump as it got colder outside.

Even at the lowest suggested outside operating temp for the heat pump it still beat the cost of wood pellets, though by only a slight margin at those temps. So now we only get a ton of wood pellets for the winter and use them on just the coldest days of the year while using the heat pump on the other days.

I turned it into a spreadsheet so I could calculate the cost per BTU given a change in electricity costs and wood pellet costs. You can likely do something similar. Most wood stove manufacturers provide a rated efficiency for their stoves and I’m sure you can find published efficiency ratings for oil burner heating systems.

I can understand boring the tires can be a hassle, especially if you live in an apartment where having a place to store tires may be problematic, but swapping the tires honestly can't be seen as a hassle.

You should be rotating your tires periodically anyway so it's not much different to swap to snow tires and back to summer tires as it is to rotate your tires periodically.

Camels Hump and Jay Peak are excellent close choices.