My neighbours are scraping ice at 10.30PM

[Tuvala]

light hearted - ish 😆

It’s frozen solid here, road is an ice rink. Neighbours are 60’s and both retired, nice couple but probably retired too soon as both seem frequently bored!
For the past 45 mins they have both been outside in -3 scraping ice off the steps, the car and god knows what else.
I was a bit concerned they had somewhere they needed to get to so popped out to ask if they needed help with anything but no, they aren’t going anywhere!
I’ve since gone to bed and the loud scraping noises are driving me potty.
What on earth are they doing it for?!
Do they want to fall on the ice or get hypothermia? Or are they just trying new ways to drive me round the bend .
Aaaarghhh!!

Normal cold water from the tap will melt it (as its not freezing!)

Yes there is someone on my road who does this. We live on a hill and it creates an ice rink down the pavement where the water runs.

yeah, I had to help one man with a broken ankle who had slipped on a neighbour-created ice rink. Had to try to keep him warm and off the snow & ice whilst waiting for the ambulance. I used up my store of grit salt making the area safe for the ambulance crew.

Totally agree Pyongyang Kipperbang. Grew up in Orange NSW ( Australia) where it often snowed in winter in the 1960s. The snow clouds were a different colour too. Lazy winds go through you instead of around.

If that were true (that there is a positive duty to try to clear the path) it would be impossible to get household insurance if you were too old or disabled to do so, and there would be all sorts of conditions attached to insurance policies around clearing properly, using salt and/or grit, making arrangements for other people to clear if you were away, etc.

On the other hand, if you try to clear the path you run the risk that, if you don't do it properly, you will have created a hazard for which you certainly could be liable.

Oh dear, did you two miss the reference to "light-hearted"?

My neighbours, who are generally very inconsiderate around generating noise, do this too. They have a car each and park one car in front of their own house and the other in front of mine - right under my bedroom window. In frosty winters, on the days they start work early, they are out their scraping their car windscreens at 5:45am and 7:15am and sometimes they run their engines for 10 minutes, too, before setting off. We've always poured hot water on our windscreens to clear the frost or kept the windscreen covered if a sharp frost is forecast.

Swingers 😉

Perhaps they find it therapeutic, I do. I love scraping my car. (Though I walk to work, so not doing it every day!)

Oh dear. Did you miss the fact that the OP added "ish" to the end, thus implying it was not actually lighthearted at all?

*out there

(I do wish MN would introduce an edit function - if only for 10 minutes after a post has published.)

Because everyone over 60 is a frail OAP with osteoporosis. Sure.
Usual ageist MN shite.

We sometimes travel to southern Germany in winter. -20C isn't unusual overnight with a 'high' around -10C, and after a couple of weeks all the moisture has frozen from the air. If there's no moisture, there's no ice on the car windows. Well, the outside at least. They tend to ice up on the inside when you get in and breath out moist air.

This has made me smile. We are a young busy family with 2 full time working parents. We live on a nice 20 year old estate and a lot of owners bought new, so are now 'early retired' like your neighbours.

We laugh our heads off at them when to snow. At 7.30am we hear the scraping start. It's like it's a competition to get the 2"'of snow cleared off your drive first. The funniest thing is they then go back in their houses and their cars don't move till the snow has gone!

But they pile all the snow off their drives blocking the path, so most of it melts but leaves big piles blocking the paths so you can't get a pushchair over it!

I think like you say they are maybe a little bored and they are used to being busy and don't want to appear lazy to other people maybe?

Your post did make me laugh as it seems other places are like here too. I've never encountered it before!

Yeah, because only frail OAPs with osteoporosis break limbs slipping on ice 🙄

Of course it was light hearted!! You are over thinking and being ridiculous.

Maybe they are making sure they can get out in the night if there is an emergency. As PP said there are no ambulances so maybe they are being prepared?

No, I can simply read properly.

Could be anxiety, my elderly PILs panic every time there is ice. They always like to clear the cars in case there's an emergency.

Not any more, because I will loiter nearby and steal it tomorrow. Your insurers will not pay out.

Most people have a spare key so can still lock their car if turned on.

Lots of modern cars (not just EVs) now have an app where unlocking/locking the car is a function. Lots also allow you to preheat your car from the app, whilst the car remains locked.

My car is electric so we don't have the issue of idling like a petrol or diesel car, and it's all controlled via an app. Car isn't unlocked at any point in the process until I go out to it.

Sorry, I perhaps wasn’t clear enough, I thought the emoji may have helped people
to infer that it was indeed light hearted bemusement and not a bitter sense of rage .
The ‘ish’ was simply the fact I couldn’t sleep due to the loud scraping and a small concern that they would be getting hypothermic!!

Some arse has done this on our road. The trail of water left behind has refrozen as a hazardous band of ice across the pavement and it's been there all day

Are these my parents? 😂

They retired far too early, are perpetually bored now.

My SIL lives a 2 hour drive from us-she was going home after Christmas, and scraped the ice off her windscreen at 9am. By the time she was ready to leave at midday it had iced up again! (Though our road is a bit of a frost pocket)

i just salt my windscreen before a frost- works a dream. If I forget I just mix up some warm salty water and pour that over. Worked a dream on over six cars in 4 years.

Could they be having an emergency and needing a trip to the hospital?