Blog: Ramblings and Rants

We’re still snowbound.

Though my experience in New England’s snow told me that driving was not advisable, I was so desperate to get to work that I tried driving yesterday. The first attempt, early in the morning, was futile; I couldn’t get out of the neighborhood. The second was even less successful. My car immediately became stuck just below my driveway, perpendicular to the direction of the street, completely blocking the road. Attempts to rock the car forward and back in any gear resulted in the car slewing sideways. We shoveled clear a narrow track of pavement before the wheels—including the dangerous task of digging out several inches of ice from beneath the elevated wheels—and coated the track with boiled water and table salt (the only traction device available to us). Then we tore apart the pedestal to an entertainment center and used the boards as ramps. After more than an hour of trying, with the assistance of Strawberry Blonde, our girls, and a neighbor we were finally able to drive (with a lot of pushing) the car barely past the point of blocking the street. It now sits (mostly) in the driveway at an odd angle.

Two of our neighbors also tried to drive on the ice and slush. One, who drove a 4-wheel-drive and chained vehicle (Oregon does chains, not snow tires for some reason), sloshed and slewed around so badly that, before he even reached my unintentional blockade, decided to turn back toward home. He called out his window to us that, even with his 4-wheel-drive and chains, the way was impassable. The other driver never made it back to his home; he left his car where the ice, snow, and slush had stopped it, roughly three hundred feet from his house.

My neighborhood, despite the slowly warming temperature, is still snowbound. The ice and mounded snow ruts aren’t melting very quickly. Every half hour or so I’ve been walking outside and checking the state of the roads: they are no more drivable than they were yesterday when I got stuck.

I hope—Oh, God! Do I hope!—to go to work today. I’m going stir crazy. Strawberry Blonde also wants me to go to work (or at least go somewhere other than home). I know the work that is piling up for me there. I’m very anxious to begin working at it lest it grows any larger. On a very personal level I need to work.

Anyone with a large 4-wheel-drive SUV and chains want to give me a lift to (and from) work? I’ll train you on advanced Photoshop or InDesign techniques as payment.