Last week, a friend posted on Facebook looking for book recommendations for her husband who had some long-distance business travel coming up; mysteries or international thrillers are his preferred genre. I had a couple of books that fit that bill and offered them to her, which she happily accepted. We decided I would swing by her place since her house is on my way to Stella's school.
Fast-forward to today! After picking up Stella and stopping for gas, I drove to her house. It was my first time there but I found her house easily and pulled into her driveway, which was fairly steep. (Maybe you see where this is going?) I handed off the books quickly since my friend was on a conference call--no time to chat!
I started up the drive only to have my wheels spin loudly on the ice.
No good.
I tried a different angle.
Nope.
This way, that way.
All I got was the smell of burning rubber and the loud sound of my engine exerting itself.
My friend, hearing all the noise, came out to investigate, putting her call on hold. She sprinkled out some salt and we tried again.
Nope.
She took over the wheel and put my car in manual. She got pretty far up before losing traction on a long stretch of ice.
We decided to give up and call Triple A but of course, I texted my sister first. Because my sister can fix everything!
My friend invited us to wait in her basement but of course, we had to make another awkward interruption while my friend was on her very important conference call because Stella had to pee. Of course she did!
Kate showed up in due time, took my key and went to work while I fed Micah. She came back inside a few minutes later, declaring success. She'd gotten pretty far up the driveway and now needed me to move her car so she could drive up into the street. We loaded the kids into the car, I backed her car out into the street and waited for Kate to follow.
NOPE.
Stopping in the middle of the driveway had not been a good idea. Kate was back at Square One despite all the cardboard she'd laid down for traction. She tried over and over again but couldn't replicate her success. We called Triple A and waited, while I sent a quick email to the elementary school to have them put Alice on her cousins' bus in case I couldn't make it home in time to meet her bus.
The tow truck came quickly and pulled my car up the driveway, and we were off. All three kids (Stella, Micah and my niece Laila) slept through this big adventure, by the way.
My afternoon was shot, even though this whole thing only took little more than an hour, but that's something I'm saving for another post.
0 comments:
Post a Comment