The Snow Man
21 January 2011
It snowed yesterday. Again. And this time, just to prove we are not getting any smarter, The Prince Consort and I made a scary mistake.
He left for work before the snow started, and since for a couple of days we’d been snow-free, surrounded by regular brown and green soggy landscape, neither of us thought about which car TPC drove to work. The Dude, our minivan who spent all his life until last March in southern California, is great in the snow.
TPC drove his Hybrid, Thor. Thor is not a snow-goer. No traction action. He prefers to skid off roads or sit at the bottom of hills sulking to actually making forward progress.
So by three o’clock the snow fell like thick lace piling all over a tabletop. By six forty-five, TCP closed up work and headed home. In the pitch dark.
Halfway home he got stuck. Thor made it down two hills and at the foot of the first up-hill had a snit-fit. TPC pulled him well off the road, and headed home on foot. Knowing TPC was dressed for driving Thor, not walking in driving snow, I grabbed TPC’s boots and gloves and started walking toward him.
We got home safe, and we Two Morons only had to wait until the morning to go rescue Thor.
This morning the temperature was in the single digits. It took not only the new snowblower, Joe Blow, but a layer of salt to get the driveway passable. While we worked, The Dude was tucked in his parking place under his snow-laden blankey.
The Dude did not actually say ‘I told you so.’ But The Morons kicked themselves for not using him the night before. We finished with the driveway, loaded salt and shovels into The Dude, and took off to dig out Thor.
I swear as we drove up to Thor, hub-cap deep in snow, I could about hear him say, “WHERE have you been? You walked off and left me in the middle of the night. I got SNOW on me. I don’t like snow. I Really don’t like snow. I want to go home to my garage.”
Where last night Thor, the Hybrid, couldn’t keep traction on the already salted roads, we didn’t need a shovel or anything else. He jetted out of the snow, up the hills, and straight home. Uh huh.
The Dude tooled along behind a bit smug, because he knows we will not forget. The Dude is the SnowMan.
From the tracks, I’d say The Dude has feathery friends.
Kath
