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Feb. 7th, 2008 09:25 amYesterday was definitely the most snow we've seen all year. Not only did I have to shovel the sidewalk and driveway, but I had to shovel the cars! There was six or eight inches of snow on the Andrea's KIA and my truck.
Oddly enough, this is the first time this year that I've bothered to shovel the driveway, and make a walkway along the side to get to the vehicles. I guess when there's less snow, it just doesn't seem worth the effort; I just drive on through it. This time, though, I could tell I wasn't going to make it out through brute force.
After a couple of trips inside to warm up, I got in the truck and backed out into the street to begin the trip to my parents' house. I had to stop at the end of the cul-de-sac I live on, though, when I found that there was a car in the intersection that had gotten stuck on the snow hill that a passing city plow had constructed across the end of the street. I parked my truck on the side of the road, switched on my hazard lights, and helped push the car out. As it happened, our neighbor to the north, the one who has those great cookouts (and, Andrea says, smoke a not insignificant amount of weed), was there helping too along with, I think, some of his older kids. "We could use one of your fireshows about now!" he said as we pushed, referring to the time I went over to juggle torches at a backyard party. We got the woman who was trying to get onto my street through the drift, and I went back to my truck.
I started the engine, shifted into 1st gear, and stepped on the gas, an act which turned out to be futile as I was now stuck on the side of the road where I'd parked. My neighbor and company helped me get unstuck too. We rocked back and forth, six hands providing help to the spinning wheels, until I finally got loose. I'm quite sure that I heard him yell something along the lines of "I'm so high right now!", but the sound faded behind me as I called out "Thanks man!" and went on my way.
I drove by my parents house, but after looking at the driveway, decided not to risk it quite yet. I drove around a couple blocks to the south with the intent of coming around for another pass. On the way, I called my mom to express that, though I was near the house, I didn't think I could get in to the driveway! She met me at the back stairs with a shovel and I cleaned out the front of the driveway. Then, since I apparently hadn't had enough shoveling yet, I cleared a narrow path along the sidwalk at the front of the house for them.
I did manage to get in and out of the driveway fairly well after that. I ate chili, and played about two hours worth of Rock Band drums. I continue to obsess over getting a drum set for myself.
So after that, I went home, backing out to the left from my parents driveway because I had so much snow between my trucks' bed and cab that I couldn't see to the right to make sure I wasn't going to hit someone or something. I made it the five or six blocks back to the street my house was on and, once again, found someone with a stuck vehicle. This time it was down at the end of the street, at the turn-around circle, right where it was keeping me from being able to loop around. I parked, got outside, and joined a few other people in helping to push the SUV out of the snowbank it was wedged against. That done, I finished my about-face and parked in front of my house with the hazards on so I could get in Andrea's car (which needed to be behind my truck so she can leave in the morning). While I was starting her car up, I almost had to go move my truck when a city truck with a blinking yellow light drove down the street and didn't seem to be able to get by my truck. Fortunately it squeezed through and I managed to complete the car shuffle with no major problems.
And you know, the strangest thing about it all is that I like this kind of weather. It makes things interesting! Driving out to work, or just trying to walk to your car, are so rarely exciting events. But yesterday I got to drive along the city streets, looking at the three to four foot walls of ice and snow along the curbs, and the trees coated in beautiful crystalline tendrils, and the strings of vehicles, headlights cutting the snow and fog, driving through narrow gray channels between the tall white snowbanks, and I felt like I was in Alaska, or northern Canada. It was like being somewhere just a bit more alive and exciting. As long as the weather isn't as deathly cold as it was a week ago, I love heavy snow. I can deal with temperatures in the 20s and 30s. 0 and below make me want to curl up in bed and not move.
Oddly enough, this is the first time this year that I've bothered to shovel the driveway, and make a walkway along the side to get to the vehicles. I guess when there's less snow, it just doesn't seem worth the effort; I just drive on through it. This time, though, I could tell I wasn't going to make it out through brute force.
After a couple of trips inside to warm up, I got in the truck and backed out into the street to begin the trip to my parents' house. I had to stop at the end of the cul-de-sac I live on, though, when I found that there was a car in the intersection that had gotten stuck on the snow hill that a passing city plow had constructed across the end of the street. I parked my truck on the side of the road, switched on my hazard lights, and helped push the car out. As it happened, our neighbor to the north, the one who has those great cookouts (and, Andrea says, smoke a not insignificant amount of weed), was there helping too along with, I think, some of his older kids. "We could use one of your fireshows about now!" he said as we pushed, referring to the time I went over to juggle torches at a backyard party. We got the woman who was trying to get onto my street through the drift, and I went back to my truck.
I started the engine, shifted into 1st gear, and stepped on the gas, an act which turned out to be futile as I was now stuck on the side of the road where I'd parked. My neighbor and company helped me get unstuck too. We rocked back and forth, six hands providing help to the spinning wheels, until I finally got loose. I'm quite sure that I heard him yell something along the lines of "I'm so high right now!", but the sound faded behind me as I called out "Thanks man!" and went on my way.
I drove by my parents house, but after looking at the driveway, decided not to risk it quite yet. I drove around a couple blocks to the south with the intent of coming around for another pass. On the way, I called my mom to express that, though I was near the house, I didn't think I could get in to the driveway! She met me at the back stairs with a shovel and I cleaned out the front of the driveway. Then, since I apparently hadn't had enough shoveling yet, I cleared a narrow path along the sidwalk at the front of the house for them.
I did manage to get in and out of the driveway fairly well after that. I ate chili, and played about two hours worth of Rock Band drums. I continue to obsess over getting a drum set for myself.
So after that, I went home, backing out to the left from my parents driveway because I had so much snow between my trucks' bed and cab that I couldn't see to the right to make sure I wasn't going to hit someone or something. I made it the five or six blocks back to the street my house was on and, once again, found someone with a stuck vehicle. This time it was down at the end of the street, at the turn-around circle, right where it was keeping me from being able to loop around. I parked, got outside, and joined a few other people in helping to push the SUV out of the snowbank it was wedged against. That done, I finished my about-face and parked in front of my house with the hazards on so I could get in Andrea's car (which needed to be behind my truck so she can leave in the morning). While I was starting her car up, I almost had to go move my truck when a city truck with a blinking yellow light drove down the street and didn't seem to be able to get by my truck. Fortunately it squeezed through and I managed to complete the car shuffle with no major problems.
And you know, the strangest thing about it all is that I like this kind of weather. It makes things interesting! Driving out to work, or just trying to walk to your car, are so rarely exciting events. But yesterday I got to drive along the city streets, looking at the three to four foot walls of ice and snow along the curbs, and the trees coated in beautiful crystalline tendrils, and the strings of vehicles, headlights cutting the snow and fog, driving through narrow gray channels between the tall white snowbanks, and I felt like I was in Alaska, or northern Canada. It was like being somewhere just a bit more alive and exciting. As long as the weather isn't as deathly cold as it was a week ago, I love heavy snow. I can deal with temperatures in the 20s and 30s. 0 and below make me want to curl up in bed and not move.
