Wednesday and Thursday were clear and gorgeous, even warm. Friday, it started. Huge, gigantic snowflakes pouring down like a big white-out salt shaker full of kosher salt. Again, we closed the school early, and this time, instead of taking time to do the many, many projects I would like to get done, I went home too.
On the way down, about 1/2 a block from the school (which is situated on a big hill), I forgot how to drive in crappy, icy conditions and the car nearly drove off into a ditch. It stopped 6" from a pole, and 6" from a tree on the side. I panicked, a little. My staff, who were walking, saw it happen, and came and walked me down to the Family Resource Center, where I called the bike shop. (Who else?) Luckily for me, Peter, my awesome friend and bike shop boss, happened to be driving through town with his girlfriend and her daughter. This was surprising as he lives about 30 miles away. They picked me up and he got me behind the wheel of the car and coached me out.
I can not think of a kinder, more respectful thing that someone has done for me in a long time. Instead of doing it for me (which I desperately wanted him to do), he showed me how, increasing my confidence, and teaching me a skill. Wow. The car was totally unscathed, and since he made me promise to not use my brakes until the road flattened out again, I waved gratefully good bye and drove home.
Home. Where there was a huge SUV totally blocking my driveway, inches away from the ditch that is on either side of our house. (Is this a theme?) There was no note, so I parked my car across the street in our neighbor's lot, and called them to make sure that was ok. Then I called the sheriff, who gave me the parking/highway patrol number. Just as I was calling CHP (yeah, really, I live in California and we really do have CHP!) these two young people came out of the usually unoccupied house next door to say that their car had run off the road and they had no idea what to do. They had left a note, but not in a very good place.
I suggested that I could try to drive it out, or better yet, see if Andy could drive it, since they had zero experience in snow driving on a slick hill. We exchanged phone numbers and all was good. Until the snowplow that works in our neighborhood tried to get up the hill, couldn't make it, and pushed the SUV right into the ditch, about 5 feet.
Ensue circus. First there was the SUV/Snowplow mess. The driver was totally shaken up, and it was almost impossible to get out of our driveway. I called the SUV owner and told her to keep calm, that a plow had pushed her car into a ditch, and that she'd better come outside. She was wonderfully calm and personable.
Then another, much larger plow arrived to see if he could help. Meanwhile, there was a jackass in a mini-van with really crappy tires about 50 feet up the hill. He was all over the road, and totally unable to move his car in the direction he wanted. (I'm still not sure where he was trying to go.) First, he pulled out of a parking space and slid down, then gunned back up and slid sideways, until finally he ended up pointing up the hill (?) on the opposite side of the street, about 25 feet from where he started, totally stuck. Now, he was a nice man, not a jerk, but he had NO IDEA how to drive in the snow. And he sure as hell wasn't listening to a girl. He almost hit everyone out there trying to help him (which at one point, included 4 people and a plow). The large plow ended up plowing the road down to pavement (no mean feat) and the driveway in front of the neighbor's house, and the jackass finally took the advice of a man, and we sent him on his way. That took more than an hour. Mind you, all the traffic was blocked, up and down hill.
Then there was the matter of the snowplow in my driveway that had to be moved. By this point, the owners of the SUV and I had gotten pretty friendly, so I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and went over to their garage, where we sat undercover and watched the circus continue. It was getting dark. After much more palaver, they managed to pull the smaller plow out, and sent him on his way. The only thing left was the SUV in the ditch. Small miracle, or at least that's how it felt.
Finally, the tow-truck arrived for the SUV. His truck was smoking or steaming so badly we could barely see him, and he took one look at the situation and said no way. He was already slipping out on the lower part of the hill (we live at the base, or at least at the low angle part), and was exhausted. The SUV remained in the ditch, damage unknown.
The next day, after trying several different things, a tow company was able to winch it out of our ditch, and luckily, except for the place where the plow impacted the bumper, the car is fine. Plus, I made new friends, and spent a lovely early evening drinking shitty college beer, talking about theatre and opera, and playing cards.
Meanwhile, it is still snowing.
