Monday, January 04, 2010

Snow Bound

A few years ago my car needed some repairs because part of a tire was flung up onto my car on the highway, doing approximately $3000 worth of damage to my car. The only vehicle the rental car place had was an extended cab, Ford F-150 truck. I was scared spitless of driving it because it was like a tank. I was the person on the road who was driving 5 miles an hour (no matter what the limit) and hugging the line on the driver's side. It was ridiculous, but it was all I had to drive.

Fast forward a few years when I was driving to see my step-father for Christmas and got stranded in the snow in Little Rock. Scared the crap out of me! Spent two nights in a Little Rock hotel and then turned around and went home. Never even saw my step-father.

Two years ago at Christmas I got to see my step-father but it snowed after I got here. We were in town when it started snowing and enough snow had fallen by the time we got home that I didn't think we were going to make it up the mountain to his house (did I mention he lives at the top of a mountain? yeah, he does.). Again, scared out of my mind. We finally made it up the mountain but were stranded for a couple of days. I was supposed to leave the next day so I had to extend my stay because I couldn't get down the mountain.

Well, I've been up here at my step-father's for a while now (still up here helping with his recovery from his car accident) and we've been lucky in the snow department (although it DID snow Christmas day - the roads were passable though). That is until this weekend. It snowed Saturday night and all day yesterday. My step-father is at the nursing home in town and I haven't been able to get there in two days because I'm stranded on the mountain (fortunately I had stocked up on food a couple of days before this happened - I hadn't planned to but when I got to the store to pick up a couple of items, I decided it would keep me from having to go again in a few days so it worked out great!).

Anyway, his friends called me today and wanted me to check out his car because it has 4-wheel drive. Well, the battery is deader than a doorknob so they walked me through charging the battery. Which is all well and good, except I think they expect me to drive into town now! Did I mention that it's a suburban and makes the truck the rental place gave me feel like the tiniest of cars? Who in their right mind would want someone who is not comfortable driving a big car and is scared spitless of driving in the snow, driving a big car in the snow??? Seriously, are these people nuts?

So, if you hear a news report that some crazy lady is driving a big ass suburban and has traffic backed up for 20 miles because she's driving so slow, well, just know it wasn't my idea!

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