A whirlwind of activity seems to have swept the first half of December away before I even noticed it. In fact, the entire year has gone by amazingly fast. How I wish it were spring once again! The other day I was riding with a friend and as she went around a turn in the road there was a pickup approaching up the hill. Lisa tried to make room for the guy taking his share of the road from the middle and the little car we were in started sliding straight for the ditch. Stopped on a patch of crystalized slushy snow at the edge of the road, just before going into the ditch. I then had to get out and try to push her car out of the ditch. This might have gone smoother than it had, except for two small problems - 1) Lisa is from the Southern states and has only been in Alaska right around 2 years now. 2) She does not have studded tires.
I tossed some of the icy snow behind the tires of her front wheel drive car and tried pushing it back up the hill... no good. So after a few attempts I backed off to survey the situation and determined that if she cut her wheels very hard to the left and drove forward she could just turn and drive out of there. Told her to keep going until she got to the main road and I would catch up. This worked okay until she stopped her car as soon as it was pointed the right way - with the tires just behind a slight incline. :-/
Okay, more snow under the tires and try to push the car so it would get up and over the small incline. Then we would be home free. Car didn't budge. I went and got long grasses poking up through the snow and stuffed them under the tires... no good. So finally I told her I was getting out of the way and for her to rock the car back and forward until it got free - and here is where I finally deduced the trouble. Being beside the car instead of in front or behind I realized that when she tried to move the car she was apparently trying to push the gas down all the way, because the tires spun like crazy. So, I got her to stop trying and told her that I was going to get behind the car and push and I wanted her to go as slowly as she could forward. Car walked right out of there. ::pounds head on snowbank:: All that work and I could have got it out at the very beginning if I had realized she had no clue how to drive on ice. :::sigh::: Lessons learned I suppose.
The rest of the week has gone fairly good thankfully. I got the Christmas tree in from the shed and unboxed, it's up and looking nice with just some clear spheres, little cerubs, and candycanes on it. The tree is a prelit one with colored lights. I also put white lights around the two windows in the front room and made a swag for over one of the windows. We had a old tree from years ago that used to be out in the yard until it fell victim to too many years and too many lost parts - now I am taking the boughs from it to use in making swags and wreaths for the house this year.
Not sure what else to report, and this is a bit long, so will get it posted.
1 comments:
Hi Sandra, Just happened upon your blog while trying to catch up on missed plots for "Without a Trace." Was intrigued by the idea of life in Alaska and working at home.
After reading this installment I remain astounded that your friend Lisa spent even 6 months in Alaska without studded snows and 4 wheel drive. I live in upstate New York and refuse to give up my all wheel drive 1988 Toyota wagon despite the fact that it's more rust than gray with plenty of passive air conditioning.
I also skipped to check out your first blog entries and found the paragraph about adding oil to the drum because your brother only poured in one instead of both. I burst out laughing. We heat with a kerosene furnace and a gravity feed drum and my husband does exactly the same thing. When I add kerosene, I make 3-4 trips to the store with a 5 gal can and pump all of them in. He buys one and all too often waits until the furnace runs out to add more fuel, or worse, let's it run out without having any at hand (although he did that only once this year and not when I was at home!) It was reassuring to find someone else in the same situation.
Anyway, enjoyed the blog. Keep writing. Judy
Post a Comment