Warning: Do not to get on a snowplow driver’s bad side. (Photos: Lunch)

Boston has nothing on us. The Big Dig? A sandcastle at the beach compared to this past storm.

I’d dug all Sunday to clear my deck and walkway and get the truck pointed in the right direction for my Monday commute. I was ready to relax and watch the Patriots take on the Packers on Sunday Night Football and … the power went out. Then it went back on, just long enough to reset the satellite. There’s Tom Brady! Then black again for a few seconds. Satellite reset. There’s Tom Brady! Then black again.

This happened about six times in the space of twenty minutes. Did it change my behavior? Did I start searching for candles? No. I am a Pavlovian rat. I just wanted my football.

Then the power went out for good. I took the dogs for a walk around my Swall Meadows neighborhood. No light. No sound but for the occasional crack of a tree branch succumbing to the weight of so much wet snow.

I called out to Allen Funt. Neat trick about turning the power on and off. He didn’t reveal himself.

I’d talked to the plow guy earlier while I was shoveling. He was just finishing a 12-hour shift. Apologized for the berm in front of my driveway. Are you kidding? I thanked him profusely for clearing the road. I like the County Public Works Dept. Solid crew.

Driving behind him was a neighbor in a backhoe. He was on his way to clear someone else’s drive but stopped for a few minutes to clear me a spot at the front of mine. Saved me an hour’s work with a few swipes.

That is one very important lesson on how to get through a storm … well, through life really. You get what you give.

Tantrums don’t generally produce good outcomes.

While the tantrum displayed by the snowplow driver at the Shellmart on Monday morning may have felt good at the time, it probably won’t feel as good when the owner of the vehicle he buried goes to his insurance company and points out the scratches and dents.

Let me explain.

There was a car parked behind the Breakfast Club/Ski Renter/Troutfitter building which hadn’t been moved in five days and was buried in snow. Because the car couldn’t move, the plow couldn’t plow.

Other residents in the apartments above had moved their cars that day (Sunday) in anticipation of plowing. When it didn’t happen, they parked their cars for the evening at the front of the building.

When the snowplow driver arrived the next day and saw that now he had no free access to either the front or rear of the building, he flipped out. The actual snow mound pictured on this page and the front page is a lot smaller than what Breakfast Club employees said they first witnessed.

So,  it really is best to move one’s car and minimize the potential for mental breakdowns.

As for Wolf, he actually got off a bus before his scheduled stop the other day just because he could tell that the driver was ready to lose it. Too many people asking directions. Maybe we should post a second employee just to answer questions on each bus – a bus concierge if you will.

That or we could equip the buses with big-ass maps like they do for city buses. Or an LED display with the stops lit up.

Onto other things …

Congratulations to John Teller for his recent third place World Cup finish in skiercross in Italy. Alpine Garage’s Mike Fiebiger says Johnny is the first Mammoth local to ever podium in a World Cup event.

Paul Jurewitz of Mammoth Sierra Properties has been elected President of the Mammoth Lakes Board of Realtors. After a recessionary decline in numbers, the organization’s membership has stabilized at about 180.

The Board of Directors consists of 15 directors, one or two representatives coming from each agency.

Jurewitz was in real estate in the ‘90s as an assistant to Darcy Bauer before he and spouse Tony Barrett opened Gallerie Barjur.

When returned to the real estate field, he chose to work at Mammoth Sierra Properties because of Stacy Bardfield’s vast knowledge and strong track record. “I wanted to learn from the best,” he said.

And from Geisel’s desk …

Scheduled for early next year on the Mono County Board of Supervisors’ agenda is a presentation on air service from Mammoth Mountain Ski Area VP Marketing Howard Pickett. He’d better be ready for a little back-and-forth from the Board, which will have its own set of data to have a more in depth conversation about the cost of air service and how it’s benefitting Mono County’s coffers … or not.

The Board said it does not want a one-sided conversation, and is also a bit wary of the presentation happening prior to its February mid-year budget review.

The County is currently kicking in $45,000 in air service subsidies, particularly to cover the lighter period during October and November prior to Thanksgiving. All indications are that the other partners will ask the County to up that amount considerably to as much as $215,000 next year.

And Kirkner says look for Steve Searles’ website launch on Jan. 15, 2011. It gives all the background on Searles and his new upcoming episodes of The Bear Whisperer. Look for www.thebearwhisperer.com