The Chaos of Tucson

Two snow drifts at the end of a driveway.

     Well, I arrived home late Saturday evening and drove home through the frigid Wisconsin wind. The next morning I woke early; my Lady and I rented a truck to move all of our possessions to an apartment one town over. With all of our hefty friends out of town, she and I moved -- lifted, pushed, tugged, and rolled -- everything ourselves.

The tire of my car parked beside a snow drift.

     We returned the truck that evening after several frustrating but successful trips. She drove me back to retrieve my car which she had graciously dug out of the 20 inch blizzard Wisconsin had just days before. I hopped in, fired up the engine, and burned my tires on the thick patches of ice underneath them -- hidden by drifting snow. We tried salt, sand, dirt, grass, and cardboard -- nothing gave the tires an edge over the stubborn ice.  We dug half a path to pull the car forward over the lawn: our neighbor's gigantic propane tank was frozen to the ground eight inches from the front bumper on the driver's side. It looked like the car was stuck.

One of the menacing patches of ice.

     But I had to work in the morning. I couldn't wait for the ice to thaw. I had no safe means to melt it. A tow -- or any other sized -- truck wouldn't fit in our back lot to pull me out.

     We decided to push it.

     I threw the beast in neutral; my Queen and I began to rock the vehicle back and forth moving the tires just to the upper fourth of the Cheshire Cat smile crescent of ice which held them. She pulled back -- worried that if we succeeded, my car would  crash into the fence 10 feet away. I saw no other option. With the momentum left from our rocking, I continued to rock the car: now aiming for the fence. Closer, closer, FREE?! I shoved the car over the final teeth of the icy smile -- exhausted -- then lept over the two feet of iced over snow on the driver's side to stop the car before it decimated the wooden fence -- now just feet behind it. I managed to stop the car about four feet from the fence: greatful it was free, from both the ice and the fence. 

     We ordered Chinese and spent the rest of the night unpacking. My apartment, still in shambles, now holds most of my belongings. My car is parked out side. My shoulders are sore. But wow is it a relief to be free from the chaos of Tucson.

The rock yard remains under siege from the snow.

~Chris