The total number of cars that have gotten stuck in the snow on my street in the last 24 hours is bordering on ridiculous.
We’re a dead-end residential street which is less than a block long, so we don’t get much attention from the plows. When the big storm hit last week, we were snowed in for three days, because we simply couldn’t get our cars out of our driveway, let alone down to the (plowed, salted) cross-street. Once the plowing was done, there were still several layers of compacted snow and ice left behind from the earlier snowfalls, melts, ice storms, etc.
So, as time went on, that snow and ice and slush got churned up, slowly making our road nearly impassible all over again. This culminated yesterday. A small car got stuck in our driveway while trying to turn around. By the time I noticed, it was rocking itself out of being stuck, which was good. Later on in the evening, a car got stuck badly enough that a local police officer stopped to render aid. Eventually, the vehicle was released from its snowy prison. Then the police car tried to use the driveway of an empty house to turn around.
That police car was stuck for about two hours. Half of the neighborhood was out there trying to get it free. Eventually, they decided to get a tow. I mean, even in winter in Michigan, tow service is lickety-split for the police. So, what does the semi-size flat-bed tow truck do when it tries to turn around in our driveway to get a better angle to free the cop car?
That’s right, it got stuck. Apparently, the snowbank created by my shoveling and by the one plowing was too much even for this monster of a truck. It was a half an hour of tow truck rocking before we noticed that the flashing lights of both the tow truck and the police car were gone. So, what happens when both a police car and the tow truck sent to free that police car get stuck in a residential dead-end street?
It gets plowed. Again. In the middle of the night.
My wife was able to get the van out and over the mini-snowbank created by the plowing, and she only left a few pieces of plastic behind. Our neighbor’s Honda was not quite so lucky. (We have a shared driveway with our next-door neighbor.) So, bright and early, (for a second-shifter) we were pushing and shoveling once again. So, to sum up, since yesterday afternoon:
- Saturn-ish small car, stuck in my driveway
- Nameless sedan, stuck across the street
- Police car, sent to rescue nameless sedan, stuck halfway in driveway across the street.
- Tow truck, sent to rescue police car, stuck halfway in my driveway
- Next-door neighbor, stuck in my driveway
As a final note, freeing cars is as much exercise as straight-up shoveling. Who needs a gym when you’ve got winter?