We Are NOT a PLOWING BUSINESS!

[Jay 2K Winger]

My damaged back has never felt better since I got the snow blower.

I joked after this recent snowfall that when I move out, Dad will finally invest in a snowblower, so he won't throw out his back shoveling big snowfalls.

Dad said, "Nope, that's when we'll move into an apartment."

[Shalom]

AB, I almost had to call one of your colleagues to get me out of a parking spot on the damn street. I've got an AWD Subaru, I was sitting there with all four wheels spinning and getting noplace... eventually I was able to dig under the wheels and rock it out of the spot, but it took me a while. Stuff looked like snow . . . it was finely powdered ice crystals.

What do you do if someone's stuck on an ice patch and can't get off it? Can you winch them out or what?

[Sleepwalker]

Depends on the location. Our small, dirtNgravel U drive is 25$ a pop- I think the huge number of pickup trucks with plow attachments around keeps the price low. That, and the drive is right next to a lovely, convenient dropoff. Bye-bye snow.

[Argabarga]

What do you do if someone's stuck on an ice patch and can't get off it? Can you winch them out or what?

Only if we can safely get to within winching distance and find a spot where we won't just end up winching ourselves into a stuck position, there have been times where, even with tire chains on, and the boom of the truck resting ON THE GROUND, it's been so icy that the truck STILL SLIDES.

In those situations, the best I can offer is to give you a ride home, and you'll just have to wait until the ice melts, or come out with better equipment than I have, there's nothing magical I can do if it's too icy for my truck to get a grip, physically impossible means PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

The coefficient of friction be a harsh mistress!

[mathnerd]

I joked after this recent snowfall that when I move out, Dad will finally invest in a snowblower, so he won't throw out his back shoveling big snowfalls.

Dad said, "Nope, that's when we'll move into an apartment."

Even then you still have to shovel out in front of your garage if you have one, or behind your car if you're parking outside. Sometimes more than once because the moron who your complex hired to plow the parking lot just shoves it all against the garages. And no, I'm not still irritated, over a year later. Why do you ask?

[workerbee222]

I've seen people at the grocery story buying 300 bucks worth of food, thinking they were going to be snowed in...

And then the power goes out and they have $300 worth of food going bad.

[raudf]

And then the power goes out and they have $300 worth of food going bad.

Or they get smart and do I like did, packing bowls with ice and snow from outside until the lights came back on. Amazingly the frozen stuff stayed frozen.

In Iceland, we'd just shove the frozen goods into the foyer. It never got above freezing during the snow, so it made a great emergency freezer/cola cooler!

[Jay 2K Winger]

Even then you still have to shovel out in front of your garage if you have one, or behind your car if you're parking outside. Sometimes more than once because the moron who your complex hired to plow the parking lot just shoves it all against the garages. And no, I'm not still irritated, over a year later. Why do you ask?

In which case, THEN Dad will invest in a snowblower.

...or divorce Mom and move to Florida. (Mom adamantly refuses to move any further south than we are already, in Fairfax County, VA.)

[BlaqueKatt]

Or they get smart and do I like did, packing bowls with ice and snow from outside until the lights came back on.

I try to keep self-heating MREs on hand.

[excuse me??]

You have probably seen a household with physically fit teenagers and parents, all too lazy to shovel their own sidewalk and driveway.

[Sapphire Silk]

A good trick when you're spinning wheels on ice is to put a blanket under the spinning wheel. It'll give you enough traction to get past the icy patch.

You know, last Wednesday night when it started to turn from snow to freezing rain, Evil Empryss ran out of the house with a shovel and quickly shoveled all her walks and then salted them.

I thought she was crazy. It was dark and it was late and we were both tired.

She was crazy like a fox. Her walks and drives were ice free after that. I broke my back shoveling just a little bit before I couldn't go any further.

Lesson learned . . . the hard way.

[Aethian]

You have probably seen a household with physically fit teenagers and parents, all too lazy to shovel their own sidewalk and driveway.

Seen that far too much this winter. Of course also seen the 70+ ones who just have a small shovel out working almost past the breaking point.

[Argabarga]

And now, the MOTOR CLUBS are getting in on it.

Got a call this afternoon for a winch out on a car "in a driveway" of a notoriously backwoodsy town 40 minutes down the road.

How long? Because if we can't reach the car with the winch line from a paved road, then we aren't going to risk getting stuck ourselves.

The club dispatcher says the customer says "it's really long" and is also requesting we stop at a Wal-Mart or something on the way over and pick up a couple bags of salt, because we'll need it to get to where they are... but they'll pay for the salt... and........


Never heard the rest.... declined and hung up on them so fast I think I got red-shifted.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Anybody who lives on a long drive in a 'notoriously backwoodsy town' has access to a snowmobile or atv, people that own plowtrucks or tractors, and has the means to
1) get their own damn salt
2) get their drive cleaned out before they call you come to get them unstuck from down the side of the drive

The last time I slid off my drive and needed winched out the tow truck kept slipping (well, the drive was slippery, that's why I slid off) so he chained his front end to a tree on the right and pulled my truck up the left bank with the cable on the back of his truck

Thank god for the tow truck drivers, because I would never have thought of that!

[Argabarga]

That's pretty much what we'd have to do. And we've long since decided it's just not worth it.

Considering how far we'd have to drive, how much time it would take, possibly getting the truck stuck/damaged and the headaches all around, and the fact that at motor club rates, we'd barely break even.

Sorry, breaking down in a dangerous situation/on the road is one thing. Not having the foresight to have a way to get out of your own driveway is all on you, pal.