Snow: 4 Susan: 0

When I bought my Honda civic in 2004, I drove it nearly three weeks later to Indiana. Bessie, as she is affectionately named, did a nice job waiting patiently in my dorm room and apartment parking lots. I barely drove her while at school, because I could get a parking permit for oncampus ---something next to unheard of here at the U of Iowa, and because most of what I needed was centrally located pretty close to that dorm or apartment. I never had to venture too far into the town of Bloomington out of necessity, though I did often for discoveries and random oddities. Bessie handled the Indiana snow, what little there was that I drove through like a pro. However, now that I am back in Iowa, and the snow does not melt usually the same day it falls, Bessie has come up against some challenging issues.
Observe:

Snow 1 Susan 0: Coming home from work at the public library one night, during a not so fun blizard, Bessie could not make it up the hill on Rocky Shore Drive/Park Road. It wasn't really her fault, she's a front wheel drive baby, and the plows had not been out yet...luckily, I could simply turn around in a driveway, and stay with my roommate (who was housesitting at the bottom of said hill).

Snow 2 Susan 0: The next morning, Bessie made it up the hill just fine...the plows had been out, the road was sanded and all was good. Until, I got back to my own apartment. Between the snow from the night before, the lack of the apartment parking lot being cleared, AND the snow piled up in the entrance from the plows going by...there was more than a surmountable bit of snow blocking my way. Well, I did what any logical woman would do in this situation**, looked to the parking lot next door which belongs to the U of Iowa. (The theater building lot to be exact, which is free on the weekends...and this, was a Sunday) Well no such luck...it was early, about 8:30am and the U of I plow crews were just getting to the music building down the street.

I decided I could go it alone.

Because, really, I just needed to shovel out enough of the plowed up snow, and get up enough momentum and I should be able to glide into the parking lot - with some expected minor fishtailing. No such luck. After clearing the first foot of snow with the shovel off the parking lot entrance, and climbing back into the car, and making a nice turn from the road, coming from the left...poor sweet Bessie met her second icky winter weather issue.

She was stuck.

I shoveled out around the car, and still had no luck. Stuck at the entrance to my parking lot. No one else could get in around me...but no one else was up at that hour anyway. Lucky for me the very nice man who was plowing the sidewalks for the University of Iowa, (that I immediately sought out to help) was good enough to come over and attempt to help. He pushed the car from behind, and I pushed the gas. No luck...we tried reversing, and I happened to get stuck again, halfway out into the street, ergo blocking on coming traffic. A few minutes later the public safety officers arrived in thier patrol car...it took all three men pushing on my car to get me BACK out into the street, and I was no better off than before. I drove around the block a number of times, and the UI guy took pity on me, and cleared the rest of the opening to my parking lot for me. I was then able to get into a spot.

Snow 3 Susan 0
A few days ago, I had my third run in with the snow gods. I tried to back out of my parking space to make a doctors appointment. What do you know. Stuck again. This time the cause of the problem, a rut created by ice and snow and other people's tires before mine. Anyways, around 9pm that night, I was finally able to drive out of that spot..while my roommate and friend watched...(I had thought they'd have to push me out) So I ended up looking like an idiot. My other friend was nice enough to give me a ride earlier in the day to the appoitnment, so I at least didn't miss that.

Snow 4 Susan 0
Today marks my 4th frustrating annoying experience with this year's Iowa winter snow. I was dogsitting for friends in North Liberty, near the Coralville Res. Their driveway is almost a mile long and turns and twists a bit, but the only real hill part is right before the actual paved driveway itself, as the rest is gravel. Well, I had no trouble getting into the driveway this morning to let the dogs out and give 'em breakfast. The snow was coming down pretty hard, and by the time I tried to leave at 9:30, probably an inch or so had fallen on the already covered drive. Wouldn't ya know? Bessie couldn't make it up the little hill.

I went from a half gallon of gas to a quarter of a gallon of gas during my rounds of attempts. I shoveled out the whole length of the hill up to its crest. I put down sand and salt around my car and in front and behind it. I tried unsuccessfully 2 times before I called my dad, exasperated. "Why do you always call me when you get stuck?" He spoke gruffly. "Because you're a physics person, you know how these momentum things work" I told him. He suggested all the things I'd already done, but I did get the phone numbers I needed to call into work and tell them I might be late. (Yes I'm working on a Saturday...but it's not busy, so I"m blogging) Anyway, I called both the public library and the art library employees, and they are all very understanding...but I say, I may make it if I can get out. I really just need a good push or something. Then I called another friend who lives nearby, but she didnt' answer, so I called my roommate, and melted down a little. Yes, I had a very "girl emotional" moment, and lost it slightly. I was so frustrated, and I had somewhere to be. My roomie was pretty understanding as she always is, and offered to come and get me. I told her to stay away, since I didn't know if the rest of the roads had been plowed yet either, and I resigned myself to sit in the car for a bit, collect myself, go back inside and wait it out for awhile. (The owners of the house will be home before supertime, hopefully). But then, I saw a group of deer bounding around nearby, and they came over (probably to investigate the smell emainating from my tires) and started to literally sniff at my car. It wasn't exactly an easy moment to open the door, scare them away and retreat into the house. So I waited a bit longer, and watched them move about. They are actually quite pretty, and I wished I had been outside the car to get a picture of one of the deer sniffing at my headlights. Luckily the deer out by the Res are not quite as tame as those by my parents house, and when I hit the car horn, they all dashed back off into the cover of the trees.
I told my roomie on the phone: I want to commune with Nature, but apparently Nature is telling me to shut the hell up. And when I hit the horn, I yelled scatter into the phone because it's an inside joke with a few friends, including Cas. She started laughing, and so did I, which made me take a breath and stop the flow of meltdown in progress, and I told her "wait, listen to how this sounds" and I made the final attempt up the hill.
Apparently enough of the salt/snow/sand mix worked, and Bessie had enough energy again, or perhaps she felt sorry for me after my outburst of tears, that she finally made it up the little hill.

So what I've learned from all this: My dad was right to have me always carry a shovel, sand and salt in my trunk, as well as an emergency kit so that I can be prepared.
Help will sometimes arrive in the form of people, animals, or pity.
And sometimes, you're just going to get stuck.


**logical woman really only refers to what I suggest might be logical, and this is my disclaimer that what I did/do remains not quite logical to some.