The trouble with winter is…

The trouble with winters here is that they can be incredibly brutal. This is especially true when your driveway is 400' long, oriented east-west, and invitingly open to the howling north wind.

Last night the afore-mentioned wind was an unwelcome escort on my drive home late in the evening. All the way home I contemplated whether or not I should risk driving my car down the driveway and into the garage, where it might get trapped overnight. I decided not to risk it. From the head of the driveway I phoned Hans to say I was leaving the car on the road, loaded up my stuff, wound my scarf around my head to ward off the wind, and opened the door. Like a spinnaker, it caught the wind and creaked alarmingly before I wrestled it closed again. I proceeded more cautiously.

The driveway was already starting to bulk up with mogul-like drifts and Hans had opened the gate for me – a precaution when drifts in the drive are a possibility. After a soak in the hot tub to fight the chill, we agreed that it was a good thing to have one car available outside the drift zone so that I could drive Hans to work Friday morning if the worst should happen.

It did. It was really no surprise. This morning at 5:10 I heard Hans get up and saw the lights go on outside. Then I heard the snowblower so I knew Hans was clearing the way to get his own car out so I wouldn't have to get up early to drive him. It's a cold and ugly job, working in the early morning dark with only the snowblower's spotlight for company. At 7:00, he was finished and woke me up.

"I wanted to do you a favour and drive your car into the garage. Unfortunately, the wind turned overnight so there was a drift in front and behind your car. When I finally got enough momentum to get out, it slid sideways across the road and into the ditch."

So we're still down to one car and I drove him to work. But, his was in the garage AND, it has heated seats! Now the sun's out, but my car's still in the ditch.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You're in luck. Darrel Jones pulled your car out of the ditch. You owe him a bottle of wine.
Haloranch said…
What colour t-shirt do you want?
Anonymous said…
Bring me a new addition to my harem! (Dotter)
Anonymous said…
You are a negligent blogger! It's been days! (Dotter)
Haloranch said…
True, but this is supposed to be a New Zealand trip blog and we haven't started our trip yet! Meanwhile, there's not much to write about that might be of interest to anyone else.
Anonymous said…
I know it's for travel. Maybe you could tell some of your travel stories for other places. Or, if you want it to be NZ, tell us what you imagine it will be like, what you're looking forward to, what you've learned in your research for the place.

(Dotter)

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