Monday, February 07, 2011

Snowy Roads 3, My Car 0

I'm keeping score.  Three is the number of times I got stuck in slushy, deep snow & ice and had to be dug out.

The first two were on my own street!  Bill was able to get out, he had to go to work today and he normally leaves around 6:15.  He left a little earlier today.  Otter and I headed out at 7:00, which is about 30 minutes earlier than normal.  Bill called right before we left and let me know that he'd made it to work, but that he'd had a couple of close calls on the way out of the neighborhood.

We have two ways out of the neighborhood.  The usual one we take in the mornings is the shorter way, which is the way that Bill went this morning.  That was the way I started to go.  I got about 2 houses away from ours and realized that the snow was just too deep.  We didn't get stuck there, but we came close.  So we turn around and head the other way.  We got a little further, almost all the way down the block and to the street to turn on that would get us out of the neighborhood.  That's where we got stuck.  Fortunately, our neighbor was still home and he answered his phone.  He came to where we were at and had to dig the tires out.  We get moving, and get to where we need to turn left, on the street to leave the neighborhood.  We didn't quite manage the turn, there were huge ruts in the road and my car is low to the ground.  The neighbor was still behind us, he said he wasn't sure I would be able to get onto the next street anyway so he stayed where he could watch us.  Which is a good thing, because he had to come get us unstuck again.  After that, we were able to actually get out of the neighborhood.

The next time was on the street I work on.  The office is in a duplex, so it's a residential street.  I got about half way down it, nearly got stuck and then turned down another street to see if there was another option but there really wasn't.  I basically made a big circle through a parking lot and went back down the street again.  And then I got stuck again.  And on the wrong side of the road, since there was a lot of sliding involved this time.  I did try to get it unstuck myself, Otter got behind the wheel and she did what I told her but the car simply would not move.  I had to call my (younger) boss and fortunately he was close enough that he could come get us out.  Took a little bit more digging and a lot of work, but he got it out.  He drove my car (with Otter) the rest of the way to the office and I drove his nice, big, 4-wheel drive Chevy Tahoe.  I told him that I'd give him my car and I'd even still make the payments, if he'd give me his.  Not surprisingly, he said he'd stick with his car.  Darn!  (It also snowed a little when we were on the way to work.)

At lunchtime, Otter and I decided that we would order from the sort-of Chinese place up the street and walk.  My older boss and his wife had made it to the office at that point, so he bought lunch for all of us.  Otter and I walked up there and got it, then we had a very nice lunch with two wonderful people.  At that point, the sun had not come out and it was pretty cold.  And windy!  I was thinking about taking tomorrow off and probably Wednesday, but the sun did come out a little bit and we got up to around 40 degrees.  So I'm going to play it by ear as far as tomorrow goes, but Wednesday will probably find me at home again.  More on the way!

Since we weren't sure if we'd be able to get out tomorrow, Otter and I found a reason to go to the Dollar Store on the way home.  Like we ever need one!  We also went to the post office and took her cell phone to be fixed - it wasn't repairable and we aren't surprised.  We stopped at WalMart since the Dollar Store is in the same shopping center and I wanted to get a couple of things that the other WalMart was out of yesterday.  We decided to grab another gallon of milk while we were at it, just in case.  There were quite a few people buying BMT storm supplies today.  When we came home, we came in the shorter way and it was pretty slippy in a couple of places but the snow was soft enough that we could get through it.  However, tomorrow morning might be another "interesting" trip, since it's going to re-freeze tonight.

My face is much better.  The brusing is still there, but it's better.  However, it still itches and it's driving me bonkers!

I'm so tired of winter weather.  I've lived here nearly 17 years, so I'm used to it.  I just don't like having to get out in it and drive.  Bill's Impala is slightly higher than mine, I never got stuck when it was my car.  But mine is just low enough that it's a real problem at times.  But we did get a huge amount of snow and it is trapping bigger and taller cars, so that might not have anything to do with it.  They are both front-wheel drive, which is easier but 4-wheel drive is really the best way to go when it's like this.  We don't have that option.  And I don't really want an SUV anyway.

But I still don't like it!

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