This New Thing has its roots way back in New Thing #40 back in February. And really, it reflects the fact that after 8-plus years as a homeowner, I'm kind of figuring things out.

I mean, I try…but I have no clue what I'm doing most of the time.

Every so often, though, I learn from something I did or did not do, and the next go-around I do better.

This is one of those times.

Every time it snows it's not the shoveling I mind so much as it is the digging out the cars.

We don't park in our garage - it's basically storage. That's another story for another day.

So, for eight years, when I dug out from a storm the cars would be parked side by side and I'd shovel a path between them and then shovel out the foot of the driveway.

Before the blizzard earlier this year, in the spirit of trying New Things, I wondered if it would be beneficial for me to park the cars one in front of the other. I'm not sure if it was, but I kind of liked it better, mainly because I only had to dig out one side of the cars.

I did the same thing on Sunday. It wasn't the largest snowfall we've had - it was only about 6 or 8 inches I think. But Sunday's snow presented other problems - the top layer was ice, and it was a heavy snow to shovel. The plow residue at the driveway's entrance was really difficult to move. But once I had the sides and fronts of the cars shoveled out, I moved the front car to the open side of the driveway, and I was able to get to work digging them out of the snow.

I'm not sure if this strategy saves me any time or if it's definitively better than the other way I used to shovel. But I like the idea of clearing out that whole side of the driveway, and how it looks when I reach the end of the driveway.

And on cold, wet mornings in the midst of some heavy-duty shoveling, feeling like it's a better way is just as good as having a better way.