Thrown off the bus in a North Dakota oil patch town

Back when I was a softball coach I acquired a fairly high quality 100 foot fiberglass measuring tape.  The deal was that the recreation department sponsoring our softball league established rules specifying distances between bases and pitching distance.  But then they just issued rubber bases to all of the coaches and sent to each game an umpire whose only qualification was an apparent willingness to accept payment for showing up at a specific time and place.  The umpires had no clue, no measuring devices and absolutely no interest.  The actual practice that developed was that one or another of the two team coaches would walk out onto the infield and throw down the bases more or less where he or she thought they were properly located.

How is a person expected to coach people to play a game when the dimensions of the game change every single time they play?

I bought a tape, a tape which according to the label I can still read all of these many years later meets US Bureau of Standards for Accuracy.  The label says suitable for Surveyors, Realtors, Landscapers and Contractors.  Further the tape surpasses US Government specs for durability.

I bought a tape and forever thereafter all of the games which included the team that I was coaching featured bases set accurately at the actual distance specified by the league rules.  I always knew this to be true because I showed up early and measured and placed the bases.  With this extremely high quality 100 foot fiberglass measuring tape.

I caught a ride with a long haul trucker but was only able to get as far as Wyoming.  Fortunately there I was able to cadge a job as a dishwasher in a cowboy bar where I was able to convince the topless waitresses that they should share tips with me.

With my share of the tips I was finally able to save enough to make a move that advanced me a significant step back towards the life that I had previously lived.  Everything has finally worked out OK.  OK especially considering being thrown off the bus.

During the course of all of that or perhaps merely because I didn't have a softball player living in my house anymore, I lost contact with the tape.

A couple of years ago I either had saved enough from the tips to get back here or I had a need for the tape.  I knew I hadn't thrown or given the tape away.  It was a discouraging search with many dead ends but as with most such searches the tape was in the last place I looked.

A long way of getting around to I have a measuring device way more than adequate for driveway dimensions.

Straight down the center crack about 40 feet, a few inches longer at the two edges.  About 16 feet across edge to edge just below the garage.  The driveway flares out at both edges at the bottom for a couple of inches in the last couple of feet of the distance towards the street.  There is also the front steps and there is also a bit of concrete leading over to the front steps.  Mostly the front steps are under the overhang so there isn't much snow over there.

It seems to me that a good rough approximation is 40 feet by 16 feet.

640 square feet.

A fairly uniform 5 inches of snow.

640 times 5 divided by 12 equals a bit under 267 cubic feet.

That's very nearly 10 cubic yards of snow removed from my driveway yesterday by a gentleman well past his best if used by date without use of power tools.

Numbers are fun.