We got hit with a pantload of snow last week, but that wasn’t the end of it. It was that kind of dry, grainy snow that just squishes out around your feet when you walk or your tires when you drive. And because it was like that, it didn’t stay put when the wind blew. Instead, when the wind kicked up to 60 miles an hour, it deposited ALL of it right on my driveway.
And I knew that before I left the house on Saturday. I knew there would be big drifts across the road. I knew those drifts would never pack down – they’d just shift and squish under my tires. But do you think I was smart enough to chain up all four tires before I left? Nope. That would have made far too much sense.
The result was two hours of digging in that sugar snow, trying to get at least enough space in front of and in back of the tires to get the chains on. And even when I was finally able to get three on (I have no idea where the fourth chain went, after I accidentally spun the tires trying to get them on), I still couldn’t get the truck out of the driveway.
So I got to walk back to the house, soaked from head to toe. By the time I got to the house, I could barely bend my legs, because my jeans were frozen solid.
You’d think I’d learn to chain up BEFORE I get stuck. I’m embarrassed to say this is far from the first time I’ve been in this situation. And even if you end up not needing the chains, it’s better to put them on where it’s relatively easy to chain up than it is to try to cram them on around a wheel that’ll only move about a third of its diameter. Especially when the truck itself is buried up to its doors in snow.
Maybe I’ll eventually learn. But then again, I probably won’t. I’m just not that bright.
