Bits for Sunday, February 1, 2009

Adventures in Bekahland would not be complete without a snow story. More specifically a driving in snow story. And so…

Allow me to begin by giving you some background information. First, I hate winter. Secondly, I’m not a stellar driver on icy/snowy roads. And finally…I live on a road that may see a plow once a season if said plow is bored. And you can imagine in the winter we’ve had…the plows have not been bored.

Part of the reason my road never sees a plow is because one end of the road is occupied by multiple apartments of college students, so there are about 18 cars crammed into that half a block. They park on both sides of the street and a regular car can barely squeeze between them. A plow would have no hope. Occasionally a kind hearted civilian with a plow on his pickup will drive through and push aside the snow on my end of the street – where the area is actually clear.

Wednesday morning, I awakened to fresh snow. From inside the house, it didn’t look like that much, so I opted to drive to work rather than walk. About 2 feet into my commute, I realized the snow was about 8 inches deep. And I was the first to traverse my block. I managed to get through and I arrived at work no worse for the wear. At lunchtime, I came home and found the road to be badly rutted. I fishtailed my way through the tunnel of messily parked cars, narrowly missing a couple of them, pulled into my driveway, and promptly got stuck. I spent the next hour, in my work clothes and shoes, digging my car out. While I did that, a car at one end of the block spun for 15 minutes before being pushed out by two occupants of a passing SUV, and a pickup truck got stuck not far from my house.

With my car dug out at last, I parked it and walked back to work. No way was I messing with this road until a plow arrived…or April. Thursday morning I peeked out to see if a plow had happened by. Not so much. So I walked to work again. On the way, I noticed the many cars that slid through the day before had packed down much of the snow, so I determined to drive back after lunch. As I carefully approached the end of the road, with hands firmly gripping ten and two, I realized the intersection was a mess.

The main road where I was about to go was clear. But in between my seat and clear was a big fat mess of slush and ruts. I stayed way back, waited for the way to clear from both directions, and gunned/slid my way out into the main road.

All afternoon I dreaded coming home, knowing I’d have to pull that stunt in reverse, and this time I’d have to watch out for haphazardly parked cars in my path. I considered leaving my car at work and walking home, but I decided to be a big girl and drive. I waited for “rush hour” to pass and headed for the car.

As I walked toward my car I called my parents. Got my Dad. I said, “I hate winter. I’ll get stuck. I just know it.” He said in that soothing Dad tone, “Now, honey, it’s not bad out. I’ve been out all day and I’ve not gotten stuck one time. You just have to go slow and be patient.”

Patience is NOT my virtue.

I got in my car, carefully made my way toward my road, veered cautiously off the lovely cleared road onto my rutted mess of a street and BOOM. Stuck. In front of my somewhat sideways and sliding car was a somewhat ill-parked car. Behind me was a string of traffic. And under me were spinning tires. I tried several times, but my car was not going ANYWHERE.

I waited for traffic to clear behind me (quite a wait) and put the car in reverse. I prayed for big time mercy and gunned it. The car cooperated and sped backwards into the main road. I drove around to find a clearer path home, located a semi-suitable one, and pulled safely into my driveway.

I’d only been home about 5 minutes when the phone rang. It was my Mom. She said, “Well, your Dad just called. The van is stuck.”

REALLY!

I said, “Did you ask him if he was being patient? Because I hear if you just go slow and are patient, you won’t get stuck….”