Son Steve called yesterday evening. He wondered if I had some time to perhaps run into town the next morning. From his tone of voice, I eventually determined that something serious was going on, and asked him to explain.
This winter we had very little snow in December, but got a lot of snow in January and February. The guys were barely keeping one car mobile with their primitive snow handling gear. The freezing rain last week did them in. The little bit of traction the VW Golf once had in the driveway evaporated when ice coated the entire driveway under the car. Steve tried and tried to get his car out, and eventually threw in the towel and asked me (and my truck) for help.
I arrived around 10:00 and sorted out the gear. I started scooping around his car with the yooper scoop I brought. These devices were designed with this project in mind… when you have a lot of snow to move, and have a distance to move it. You just jam the scoop into the snow bank and slide it along the ground to its new destination, then come back for another load. Once we had all the accessible snow around and under the car moved, we hooked up the tow strap between the two vehicles, and easily pulled the Golf out. Phase one complete.
Next we began shoveling John’s car. We were delighted as the car began to show itself through the snowbank that had enveloped it. First the trunk, then the back window, then a door! We wound up taking several breaks because I just ran out of steam. We had constructed a pretty good sized hill by this time, up which we had to push our scoops and empty the snow. Then back for another load.
When we finally got John’s car so that we could get inside, Steve inserted the key and cranked. Nothing. Not even a whimper. Grumble grumble. I drove the truck into the spot where the VW had been. The scale was all wrong, of course. A spot that had been adequate for the VW required some back and forth 4-wheel drive before I got close enough for the jumper cables to stretch. As soon as we hooked things up, Steve gave it another try, and she fired right up. Yay! And amazement upon amazement, it backed right out of the driveway without getting stuck.
The final step in the process was to clear enough of the snow away from the front of the garage so that one of the cars could go inside, leaving the other outside. I bowed out of that and decided to head home. It seems I don’t have the scoop-ability I once did 🙂 I was honored to have my picture taken with Steve’s pinhole 3D camera. He built it from scrap lumber in my workshop, and figured out how to make it take some pretty neat photos. With the correct 3D glasses, you should be able to see me clearly standing in from of my truck with my trusty yooper scoop.
Who needs 3-D glasses when you can cross your eyes just right? (I use a stereoscope for long-term projects at work, but a quickie like this gets the old fashioned version.)
Comment by Mel — February 13, 2013 @ 9:22 am