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"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."
- Unknown

"That which does not kill you, makes you stronger."
- Handed down through the ages.

"Life's tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid."
- John Wayne



It was Mama Pea's Fault


December 27, 2011 – 10:29 PM

Last night at this same time, as I crawled into bed, the thermometer at the window read 39 degrees.  Right now?  -4.5 degrees.  Now that’s a heck of a 44 degree temperature drop in 24 hours!  When I went out to stoke up the wood furnace about ½ an hour ago, the snow sounded like squeaky Styrofoam under my mukluks, and the trees were snapping as the sap in them froze and expanded.  I love winter!  :)  And I’ll take THIS *any* day over the weird, slippery 39 degree weather!

It had been mild for a couple of days following the last little snow, and Mama Pea was cautious about me driving in to town on Christmas Eve.  She wanted me to telephone or send a last e-mail before I left home.  Mind you, it was daylight and it’s NOT like I don’t drive that road all the time!  And, never mind that I’ve been driving snowy roads for the past 24 years.  So, appeasing an old woman (ha, I’m gonna get smacked for that, but I couldn’t resist!), I sent an e-mail when the car was loaded and running.  I was heading out.  See them in about an hour.

You know, if Mom hadn’t jinxed things, everything would have been fine.  Instead, about a mile and a half from home, twilight beginning its early hold on the afternoon, I’d just crested a hill (yes, I was at the TOP of it), and . . . lost control.  Are you KIDDING?!  I was going slowly enough that I had some time to try to correct the spin, and so I ended up heading back in the right direction on the top, flat part of the hill with just my rear passenger-side tire into the slump of the (fortunately!) minimal ditch when I stopped spinning and sliding.  Unfortunately, the warm temps were making the road underneath the couple of inches that I hadn’t bothered plowing (ahem!) completely icy and slippery.  I couldn’t get any traction for love nor money.  If I’d been on even the SLIGHTEST incline, there wouldn’t have been a CHANCE.

Running late, as usual, I patiently explained to the car that I just didn’t have the time to walk home, get the truck, pull out the car, blah, blah, blah, and that it HAD to get unstuck.  No matter what I did, though, no matter how I rocked the car back & forth, I just COULDN’T get traction.  So, I looked around the jam-packed car to see WHAT I could use to spread underneath the wheels.  I didn’t think my Deluxe Mashed Potatoes were gonna do it.  But then . . . what to my wondering eyes should appear . . . but the sight of my leather work gloves!  My “good” work gloves.  You know, the ones I wear to town.  Yes, they juuuuust might afford the traction I needed.

So, I cleared as much snow as I could by hand (the shovel was well-buried in the car underneath all the Christmas loot) and then shoved a glove as far under each of the two front tires as possible.  Then . . . coaxing the car along with the gentle threats that this was our last chance . . . I eased my foot off the clutch, stepped on the gas ever so slowly, felt the tires grab . . . spin . . . grab, grab, grab . . . and then I was spinning back onto the middle of the road!  Whoo-hooooo!

The 4 ½ mile winter driveway and the main road were SO slippery with the warm temps that it had taken me that whole hour to inch along (and get stuck and then unstuck) by the time I got down to the highway.  I stopped at Bundle of Joy’s house and used the phone to say that I was on my way . . . 20 minutes yet to go.

Ah, yes, never a dull moment, right?  ;) 

9 comments:

  1. Oh, yes. This weather is weird-a-rootie. Yesterday, we had torrential RAIN and it was in the 40s. That is now changing with gale-force winds and a loss of 10 degrees an hour (or so). Whoopee! Glad you made it. So much for calling ahead!

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  2. You know..... this is all the more reason to just embrace your feral child/live in the sticks inner self and just go ahead and carry around a nice deer carcass in the car LOL... okay, maybe we could upgrade that to a tanned hide to avoid the stench.... LOL!!! I'm glad you got unstuck, your resourcefulness is becoming quite legendary, girlfriend! Oooooh, and what is this I heard this from my mom this morning that the "shooter" died??? What a strange turn of events...

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  3. Susan, so I suppose all that rain in so freezing into glaze ice???

    Erin, hahahahaha! I've often thought of that: if I hit a deer with the car and the car wasn't too damaged to drive . . . how would I get the dead deer AND the dogs into the car in one load?! ;) Yes, there is probably something VERY wrong with me! And, thanks for the props re my resourcefulness . . . but it's just necessity! Necessity is the mother of all invention and all that rot.

    And, yes, he died yesterday morning. It's just ALL so awful. I'm sure no one wanted an end to the situation like this. He was in the jail in the big city 2 hours south of town and, according to the reports, was showing "upper respiratory distress" the night before. They were keeping a close watch on him in the jail and ultimately called for an ambulance. His mom & family were able to get down there during the night, and he died in the early AM as a result of whatever this was. The news says "There were no signs of any injury from someone else or self-inflicted. The investigation is pointing toward a physiological or medical condition and not a traumatic cause of death . . . . But we just don't know that for sure until we see the autopsy results. It didn't appear to be any outside influence. It appeared he became sick and got worse very quickly."

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  4. Glad you made it there unscathed (wish I could say the same for your nice gloves though). And what a GREAT bunch of gifts you gave your parents!

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  5. Carolyn Renee, when I read your comment I went, "Huhhh?" Then the light clicked on and I went over to Mama Pea's to take a look . . . figuring she must have made a post! :)

    P.S. My gifts were out of desperation this year as I had NOTHING to give but myself!

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  6. Wow, so glad you were able to correct the sliding, and not have it end up worse. But I will disagree with you on the temp thing....It will be 5 here tonight, and it was 52 yesterday. Give me 52 anyday. Heck, 40 would be ok right now.

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  7. You have the best Christmas profile pictures ,I'm in love with holly berry to begin with,my all time favorite.You are the bravest soul to live in the north woods all by your lonesome and the dearest of daughters," good year to you"

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  8. Whew. What an adventure. Glad you were able to make it relatively unscathed. The weather has been so bizarre. As I waited for the bus this morning to go to work there was a tree with the buds swelling. NO, STOP THAT, IT'S ONLY DECEMBER!! We're about 20 degrees above average and they're predicting 50 on Saturday. On New Year's Eve? Unthinkable in Iowa.
    Judy

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  9. I just got all new tires for my little car because I felt like I was ice skating down my city street on the one snow we had - maybe I should carry around a deer skin too, LOL!

    I once got stuck in a sand dune while driving in the desert and tried to use my floor mats for traction. Ultimately, a bulldozer (who had created the dune where it had not been the day before) came along and pulled me out!

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