snow days
8 inches of snow + 50 feet of driveway + 1 shovel = great 45-minute workout
after a night and day of beautiful snowfall early this week, i had to go to the hardware store and post office, so i warmed up the car, brushed the snow off all the windows, and attempted to plow through the 8 inches of snow on the driveway. heh heh! nuh-uh.
so i had to dig myself out to the road. after shoveling my way down the driveway to the snowplowed road (breaking into a full-on, shirt-soaking sweat), driving my 2WD car down the hill and along icy and mud-slushy roads was kind of stressfully exciting.
later that night when i left the house again, a tow truck was parked two driveways down the hill, lights flashing, driver waving emphatically for me to get on the wrong side of the road. which i did. which made my tires screech out some previously unheard and scary noises on the crunchy ice and my brakes kinda not work. which made me think, hmmm, that ain't good... about 100 feet farther down, there was a big 4x4 that landed conk in the roadside ditch on a curve that the driver apparently had taken a leetle too fast (as in, 7mph).
hmmm, maybe i shouldn't be driving right now since i don't know WTF i'm doing... i mused, but kept creeping down the road because i was too scared to attempt driving UP the hill. (in the end, that was a good decision, because according to my neighbor, several cars got stranded on the road on the way up to my house that night. one of them took out our mailbox as they slid. bye-bye, mailbox!)
and then, on my way to my oh-so-distant destination downtown, i was just getting used to navigating icy roads – 'drive as if you can't stop,' monkey wisely advised – and feeling my adrenaline subsiding a little when lo, before me lay the 9th street hill that i have biked up in sunnier weather. this hill goes up one long block, and biking up it requires some effort. just as i reached the bottom of this hill, i thought to myself, hmmm, maybe i shouldn't be driving up this hill since it's kinda steep on a bike... and then gunned the engine and at an unbelievably low speed i made it about 2/3 of the way up before finding myself hovering in place. there wasn't enough room to make a U-turn, and cars came up behind me eventually as i flashed my hazards and continued trying to claw my way up this hill, my leg re-adrenalized and doing a little freaked-out jitterbug.
these other cars (all 4WDs as is the custom) passed me in varying states of slip-sliding control in order to make it up the hill themselves, as i switched through lower gears and alternated between flooring it and barely touching the gas, and wondered how the HELL i was gonna get up this hill, and how maybe i should just put it in neutral and coast backwards and hope for the best. one more dude in a 4WD passed me as i tried talking myself down (up?), starting to sweat, and then he parked at the top of the hill, jogged down the sidewalk without making eye contact, got behind my car, and PUSHED it 50 feet up the hill.
i screamed 'THANK YOOOOOUUUU!' out the window without stopping, for fear of losing momentum, and then wrote a craig's list rave for him the next day.
i believe it is now time to get snow tires.
after a night and day of beautiful snowfall early this week, i had to go to the hardware store and post office, so i warmed up the car, brushed the snow off all the windows, and attempted to plow through the 8 inches of snow on the driveway. heh heh! nuh-uh.
so i had to dig myself out to the road. after shoveling my way down the driveway to the snowplowed road (breaking into a full-on, shirt-soaking sweat), driving my 2WD car down the hill and along icy and mud-slushy roads was kind of stressfully exciting.
later that night when i left the house again, a tow truck was parked two driveways down the hill, lights flashing, driver waving emphatically for me to get on the wrong side of the road. which i did. which made my tires screech out some previously unheard and scary noises on the crunchy ice and my brakes kinda not work. which made me think, hmmm, that ain't good... about 100 feet farther down, there was a big 4x4 that landed conk in the roadside ditch on a curve that the driver apparently had taken a leetle too fast (as in, 7mph).
hmmm, maybe i shouldn't be driving right now since i don't know WTF i'm doing... i mused, but kept creeping down the road because i was too scared to attempt driving UP the hill. (in the end, that was a good decision, because according to my neighbor, several cars got stranded on the road on the way up to my house that night. one of them took out our mailbox as they slid. bye-bye, mailbox!)
and then, on my way to my oh-so-distant destination downtown, i was just getting used to navigating icy roads – 'drive as if you can't stop,' monkey wisely advised – and feeling my adrenaline subsiding a little when lo, before me lay the 9th street hill that i have biked up in sunnier weather. this hill goes up one long block, and biking up it requires some effort. just as i reached the bottom of this hill, i thought to myself, hmmm, maybe i shouldn't be driving up this hill since it's kinda steep on a bike... and then gunned the engine and at an unbelievably low speed i made it about 2/3 of the way up before finding myself hovering in place. there wasn't enough room to make a U-turn, and cars came up behind me eventually as i flashed my hazards and continued trying to claw my way up this hill, my leg re-adrenalized and doing a little freaked-out jitterbug.
these other cars (all 4WDs as is the custom) passed me in varying states of slip-sliding control in order to make it up the hill themselves, as i switched through lower gears and alternated between flooring it and barely touching the gas, and wondered how the HELL i was gonna get up this hill, and how maybe i should just put it in neutral and coast backwards and hope for the best. one more dude in a 4WD passed me as i tried talking myself down (up?), starting to sweat, and then he parked at the top of the hill, jogged down the sidewalk without making eye contact, got behind my car, and PUSHED it 50 feet up the hill.
i screamed 'THANK YOOOOOUUUU!' out the window without stopping, for fear of losing momentum, and then wrote a craig's list rave for him the next day.
i believe it is now time to get snow tires.
posted by a wandering eye at 9:09 PM
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