Digging Out, Day 2

The second day of serious digging out took place, today. Made all the more exciting by the fact that this is now, officially, the 7th largest snow in Minneapolis history. The largest one since 1991. And we've now had two-thirds of the total snowfall for an average winter, all before winter actually starts.

As far as I can tell, only one plow has been down our street. And the plow's blade did NOT touch the ground. So what we have on the street which our driveway connects to is two tire ruts with about 8 inches of snow between them.

Now, if you're coming down our street from one of the adjoining streets, that's not all that bad. After all, if you're simply driving down the block, you just leave your tires in the ruts and - like a ride at Disney - the car just goes where it's supposed to go.

But, if you're like us, and you need to actually get from the driveway to those ruts... well... it's not so easy. What we really need, I think, is something like the moveable rails that they use to move trains from one track to another.

Since we don't have those rails, though, I'm simply very very happy that I have a car with all-wheel drive. Sure, it's not a big SUV with four-wheel drive that sits high enough to avoid all of the snow, but it does have power at all four wheels. So, when our snowblower ran out of gas today (possibly we should have planned ahead, since this was blowable snow #3 already this season), I decided that I would make the drive out to get more gas for that (and a few groceries, while I was at it).

First attempt to get out of the driveway was pretty much futile. So I tossed it back into Drive and pulled back in. Then I got out and attempted to shovel a whole lot more snow out of the way. Second attempt was equally bad. Third attempt I stepped on the gas seriously hard (if this was summer, I'd have shot across the street and driven up on the yard across the street). I bounced my way into the ruts.

So. Great. I made it out. Did my shopping and got the gas for the snowblower. And then realized that I probably wouldn't be able to get back into the driveway on the way home - after all, on the way in you have to gain speed, then turn OUT of the ruts and into the driveway. Much harder than the other direction.

Foolhardiness - combined with not wanting to park my car outside on a night which has a predicted low of -13 (not including windchills) - made me try it.

Made it in on the first try. Granted, I slid so far across while I was turning that I ended up on the wrong side of the driveway and had to readjust by backing out and lining up a little better - but I could do all of that on the shoveled driveway.

I have no idea whether Christopher is going to be able to get his car out in the morning. Or what kind of plowed piles we'll be dealing with when the plows finally do come down our block. (I'm assuming they will... eventually...)

Only 3 or 4 more months to spring.