Wheel + Shovel = Wovel

By at 9:51 am Saturday, Dec 11

It's snowing in Minnesota, today. A lot. About an hour ago, I took the trash out, and came back to the house with a snow line around my knees. And it's still coming down.

That's all fine, though. What I'm really dreading is tomorrow, when I have to shovel it all up. Increasingly, I find my fancy turned toward the wovel—a ridiculous-looking piece of hand-powered machinery, that's supposed to help you clear a sidewalk easily, without the lower back pain*. I'm intrigued, and may have to end up buying and reviewing one of these things later this winter. In the meantime, do any of you own one? Is it as fabulous as they say? It came out in 2005 and has since inspired a ton of YouTube fan videos. I chose this one because the guy is woveling in shorts, for some reason.

*I've already decided that a gas-powered snow blower isn't an option. A) I just don't feel like owning yet another fossil-fuel burning contraption. B) I live on a hill in the middle of a block and am equally uninterested in hauling a snow blower up and down the slope.

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Maggie Koerth-Baker

I do the Twitter, the Google+, and (to a much lesser extent) the Facebook.

Books
• Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us, my book about the future of energy in the United States, will be published April 10th.

Upcoming Appearances
• April 2 at Skeptics in the Pub, Boston, Mass.— 7:00 pm at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square. Please RSVP.
•April 4 at MIT: "Shedding Light, Online", a discussion about how blogging and a dynamic audience helped shape my book, Before the Lights Go Out—4:00 pm in Maseeh Hall. Please RSVP.
• April 6 at Carnegie Mellon University: More details to come
• April 9-13 at University of Colorado, Boulder: 64th Annual Conference on World Affairs
• April 10 at Colorado State University, Fort Collins: "Putting the Fun Back in Infrastructure"—3:30 pm in the Rocky Mountain Innosphere.
• April 19 at The Bakken Museum in Minneapolis: Book Launch Party! Come enjoy snacks, a presentation by me, and some fun with the Bakken's Leyden jar.
• April 21 at Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul: Earth Day Tweetup event with Will Steger and Sean Otto—events run 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
• May 2 at University of California, Berkeley: "Putting the Fun Back in Infrastructure"—6:00 pm, location TBA.
• May 3 at the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco Chapter—Lunchtime lecture, time and location TBA.
• May 3 at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito, Cali.—7:00 pm.
• May 30 in New York City—Panel on local and DIY energy with the New America Foundation
• June 22-25 in Aspen, Colorado: Aspen Environment Forum
• July 5-8 at CONvergence in Minneapolis, Minn.—exact times and dates TBA

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