Fear and loathing on the front porch, with ice

Remember the lovely icicles on my front porch? They are still there. Or more accurately, they keep coming back. I've knocked down icicles twice a day, morning and evening, but there is so much snow and so much other frozen wonderland on our south-facing roof that there will be icicles for a while. Make that quite a while.
Yesterday I was knocking down a batch of these lovely wet stalactites of ours and I startled a woman walking her dog past the house. She saw what I was doing and laughed; I had to laugh back. My icicle obsession seems so pointless.
So why do I bother fighting this losing battle? Safety. When the sun shines on the icicles, they melt. They drip. They drip onto the front steps and the sidewalk, and then they refreeze. This means the very same sidewalk that Amigo uses to get to and from his school bus becomes ice-covered and slick, very slick. This is also the very same sidewalk that the postal carrier and paper deliverer use each day. They need a safe walkway, too, just like Amigo. So in addition to knocking down the icicles, we spread salt and kitty litter on the sidewalk regularly. Husband spent some time chopping and removing the accumulated ice today, so for now the sidewalk is clean.
We'll see. There's another storm predicted for Monday overnight.
If I keep fighting these battles, I know eventually I'll win. Maybe in May?

Stumble It!