Update

At least the gas in my uphustory was not in vain. We got just enough snow for me to road test the snowblower, and it is functional. I may need some practice to get the hang of plowing deep enough to get the snow without flinging bits of my gravel driveway around. This brings me to the second Snowblower Lesson Learned the Hard Way: check wind direction before you start up the snowblower. I will accept snide remarks only from those who knew that a snowblower shoots the snow 4-5 feet up without ever having seen one in use before.