As long as I can remember I have been living in what seems to be some sort of secret lake with a thin coating of mud on the top of it. I am talking about my yard. For some reason our yard doesn’t like to remain solid unless its a hot dry day. I hate winter because of this and the combination of having a rear wheel drive car. This year has thankfully been mild but almost any time I try to leave the house and its cold I just forget it. Take last week for instance; it rained, and then froze and was pretty crappy. That was all fine until three days later when its OK for everyone else, my driveway for some reason decides to turn into an ice rink. We even got new rock down on the driveway before winter and it still decided not to help. This also wouldn’t be so bad if the driveway wasn’t massive. Our driveway is about 1/4 of a mile long. This year I have been parking on the circle drive down the street and simply walking the rest of the way.

Last night did bring a bit of enlightenment however. I have always gotten the same speech over and over of “just get a new car with front wheel drive.” I like my car dammit, and front wheel drive isnt as fun as rear wheel drive is (haha!). Last night we got a pizza and I feared the worst but thought that an experienced delivery guy would be ok getting out. It had rained however all day that day and my yard was about the consistency of warm jello. The delivery guy got there without a problem and we all started to eat. I look out the window and see headlights, but usually you see them fade away right? Wrong. These headlights weren’t moving. I instantly laughed and said “Looks like the pizza guy is stuck” and I heard from the other room “Awww….shit….” from my step dad. I didn’t think it would be so bad, after all he had a tiny little car with front wheel drive. Well, I walked out there and to my supprise, the kid had buried his car all the way to the frame of the car. The bumper was literally laying on our driveway. What he decided to do, instead of back out the long drive like any sane person would do, he decided to turn around in the yard. Well as soon as he got into the yard, the mud started to lose him traction. Being the “smart” driver he was, he increased the RPM’s of the car and simply dug his tires deeper and deeper into the ground. I tried to push him but that was not even going to work. By that time my stepdad had came outside and had a bright idea of trying to tow the car out with a little Honda car he drives..wow, really think that’s wise?

Of Course that failed but instead of giving up, calling a friend with a 4×4 truck (we live in the Midwest, every 3rd person has one) he simply gave the rope some slack by backing up and then proceeded to gun it, gain speed and whip the stuck car. Well in my mind I saw only two things happening:

1. The poor pizza guys bumper would fly off.
2. The poor Honda’s bumper would fly off

Well to my suprise neither happened, the rope gave way and came flying by my face at near mach 5. It made a neat whipping sound and hit the car next to me. Neat, I didnt die.

I proceeded to leave and call someone with a truck, but the breaking rope didn’t stop the stepdad, no no, he wanted to give another whack at it. This time he had a plan, he went in the house and grabbed a knife to cut the rope shorter. You see the rope had alot of knots in it from other uses, this kept him from tieing it all the way to his car. So the rope didn’t snap, it just became untied… ghee I wish I would have known that before I offered to help and stand behind it.

Well fortunately this time he managed to pull the car out..right as my friend with the 4×4 showed up. Oh well, I treated him with pizza for the trip over anyhow.

Atleast once a winter I have to have my car drug out of our yard, I am tempted to go buy some of those giant stubby tires for a truck and fit them on my car ha ha.

Do any of you have a hard time in the winter? Sure does suck here, at least until I leave the yard.