A Colorado Event for most that I had yet to experience…
But guess what, I’m a stuck-in-the-snow virgin no longer!!!! It actually happened just now, and has helped restore my faith in human nature’s willingness to be helpful. So there I was, beginning to feel the twinges of what is termed ‘cabin fever’. Yes, it had only been one day so far stuck at home, but I was rapidly needing to see the outside world and Best Buy (oh, the withdrawals…) and I finally decided to go out and see Dreamgirls at the movies. So I got cleaned up, shoveled my driveway (not too much on it this time, just a little drift here and there – my unfortunate 90-degree neighbors again had the 3-foot drifts up on their garages to deal with…), put my gloves and scarf on, and began the journey. I pulled out of the garage, got onto Lisa Dr., and wound my way north towards Leoti Dr that would take me to Constitution. As I round the corner of Lisa right near my house, I can see the intersection of Leoti and Lisa. Hmmm…. You can see Deep trails of tires that have gone through the drift that has plopped itself right at that spot. But I see those damn tire tracks, which leads me to think people have made it through. And I’ve made it through this particular spot before with a little bit of sliding and traction-losing, but I always made it. So I had one moment of “Maybe you should turn around and go the other way, via Crazy Horse” but I quickly told that voice to shut the hell up – Catherine and I are going FORWARD!!!! So I started down the street to the intersection, just gritting my teeth and hoping for the best. I entered the drift…I was going, I was going!!!….and then I started slowing, and then I stopped. I realized I was getting absolutely no traction on any of the tires, and in fact, my car was no basically propped up on snow. Yeah, apparently the drift was a TAD deeper than I had anticipated. As I sat there, realizing I was one of THOSE morons, I resolved it was time to get the shovel and dig myself out. Fortunately this happened just hundreds of feet away from my house, so I trudged back to my house, got the shovel, and started to dig. One guy in a car, who was on Leoti, stopped and asked if I needed help. He was driving a Geo Metro, so I knew he was not going to be able to push me or pull me, which I expressed, but he told me he’d be back to help regardless. So I started digging out from the front of my car, trying to clear a path. It was then that I actually saw the amount of snow UNDER my car. And the fact that I was truly propped up on snow. The guy actually did come back with his own shovel, and we both worked at it a little until the realization was that a tow truck would definitely be necessary. He left after I thanked him and told him my plan, and as I was walking back again to my house to call VW’s roadside assistance hotline, another neighbor was leaving and asked if I needed help. I told him I was going to call a tow truck and he said, “No need, I have a winch!” At first I wanted to say I don’t really care what your wife can do to help, but then it dawned on me he was talking about a towing device!!! So he parked his Jeep Cherokee and then got in his raised 4WD humongous Chevy truck, which had a winch mounted on the front. I started wondering what the hell is he going to attach that hook too on my car when I explored and found that indeed, there’s a damn tow ring on the back!!!! Woo hoo! And sure enough, his winch pulled Catherine right the hell out of that drift. Bryan (the neighbor with the winch) is officially my hero for the day. And now I’m parked back in my garage, and I’ve resolved that that was enough excitement for one day. I’ll go to the movies tomorrow.
(Jan 15, 2016 Update: I couldn’t comment on it at the time of writing this post, but the guy who helped me get out of the snow? HAWT. )