#104 Ice Bound

If you haven't read #101, about the mess in my driveway, read it now, paying special attention to points 5 and 6, about how it's supposed to be sunny and warm enough this weekend to melt the snow and ice, and about how every time they say that, it just ain't, aren't, wasn't ever, dasn't never be, true!  So here it is the weekend, and it sleeted all day.  Well, I think it was sleet.  It looked and felt a lot like rain, but it bounced when it hit the inch of ice already on top of the snow, so it was something harder than rain.   Now they're saying that it will warm up into the 40s Wednesday, and get into the 50s Friday, which will surely melt it all.  Yeah, surely.

When I've gotten myself into this fix in the past, I've called Budget and had them deliver a rental car.  Budget was the only folks around here that would deliver.  I'd shovel a space at the bottom of the driveway for the rental.  That got me wherever I had to go, but the first time I went grocery shopping and had to carry all those bags up the hill, I about died.  Remember - the reason I can't get the van down or the car up is the ice!  (Pick up bags.  *Walk five steps.  Fall down.  Gather up everything that fell out of bags.  Pick up bags.  Repeat from * until front door reached.)  Well, I won't have that problem any more.  Last I heard, the local Budget office had closed.

So I decided the van was going down the driveway this afternoon.  It might go down sideways or on its roof, it might take a tree or two with it, but it was going down. 

Turns out it wasn't so bad after all.  The whatever-it-was-falling-from-the-sky melted and compressed the snow under the ice (or maybe it was residual heat in the blacktop, but I doubt it), so the tires were able to cut through the crust, and then ride on top of ice pieces.  That kept the bottom of the dropped body just high enough that it didn't "snowplow" (push snow up into the engine).   I left the van at the bottom.  Walking back up, I was amused that some part of the undercarriage had gouged a track 2 inches deep midway between the wheels, all the way down.

So, I'm ready.  Now it will definitely get warmer soon.  It better be soon - having blocked the drive, I won't be getting any deliveries until it does.