Note to drivers...

[bunsen_h]

After helping to push several cars stuck in the T-intersection beside my house:

• If your car is stuck in deep dry-powder snow on an icy patch, spinning your wheels at high speed doesn't help.
• If people gather to help push your car out of the snow, any able-bodied person in the car apart from the driver should get out and help to push.  If they're not able to help push, they should at least get out of the car.  Their weight in the car doesn't help.

I'd made the mistake of leaving my snowblower outside and slightly exposed to the snow.  Snow had got into the rotor and partly melted, then re-froze, making the rotor badly unbalanced.  When I tried to run the thing, it vibrated violently and made a terrible noise.  I had to bring it inside and let the ice melt out of it, then put it back out on the porch to get cold before I ran it again to avoid getting more snow/slush/ice in it.  I managed to clear my driveway, but noticed that it had accumulated more frozen slush and ice inside the rotor.  Apparently the heat from the motor was enough to cause some melting, and that water then sprayed over the rotor and re-froze.  The snowblower is now sitting back in my entranceway, on a boot mat to collect the water.  Better that than having to mop up the water, as I did the first time today.  Live and learn.