Emily, my neice, came up to visit us over the winter break. While she was up we decided to go up to Shaver Lake and see the snow. We were a little worried the day of because there was a "30% chance of percepitation" (meaning snow) and we have a minivan. We do not own chains. And we are from southern California. So to say we have a limited experience driving in the snow would put it mildly. Hey, where we are from they say that we don't even know how to drive in the rain. Of course not us directly. :-) Anyways, it was agreed that we would go to the snow but if it started "snowing" or if it got unsafe we would come home. We got there no problem. Went to a snow bank by the lake and played until the kids complained about the coldness and their tummies were grumbling. We decided to then go back into town and eat at one of the local diners. We stopped at the first one we saw and Russ parked into an available parking spot. The available parking had snow at the end and was on a decline. Russ came to a stop just as we heard the snow crunch beneath the front tires. We both looked at each other and then looked in front. And then just around the corner but visual from our new parking spot was a clean parking spot. One that didn't have snow. We decided right away to move the car into the obviously better spot. Russ put the car into reverse, stepped on the gas, and then nothing....The engine revved, the wheels turned but we were not moving. Yep, we got stuck despite our best intentions.
We sat there for a second. Russ trying again to see if doing the same actions might perhaps provide a different result. However despite Russ' best endeavors just putting the car in and out of drive wasn't getting us anywhere. We both got out of the car to take a better look at the situation. Lo and behold we were in a frozen pickle. First we tried kicking out the snow that had built up around the tire. Free the tire. Now try again, step on the gas. Nothing. Okay, let me try again. Free the tire. Surely that will be enough. Now try again, honey. Step on it. Nope, that didn't work.
Well maybe we should just go eat. I'm sure the diner could help us out too. They would know what to do. Just then Russ spotted a Cal Trans truck with a snow plow parked across the street. Russ told me, "run over there and recruite his help". The guy went to the back of his truck to get something that would help us. As I started running back to the car. A little frail old lady started yelling for my attention close to where we were parked. I ran quickly over to the lady. The lady couldn't have been more then 100 lbs soaking wet. She had a nasal cannula hooked up to an oxygen tank she used as a cane. She then put me in my place. You see there were 3 stores in the parking lot. A diner, a chimney sweeper, and her antique shop. And I was parked in front of the chimney sweeper. I needed to move that car immediately.
"We are actually trying right now, but we got stuck"
"I don't care, you need to move that car"
"Ya we are trying to move it. Do you have anything maybe that could help us?"
"Do I look like I can help you!?"
"Well, I thought maybe you had a piece of wood or something."
"You need to move that car"
And on and on she went. Bent on the idea that despite us actually working on moving the car because I haven't left her side she must repeat herself. And so I went running from the Cal Trans guy, to our car, to the grumpy old lady who kept yelling for my attention. Just for me to walk over there to have her tell me to move my car. Can't you see I'm working on it. It got to the point that she was so rude that it was almost comical. It really wasn't hard to just polite say "yes ma'am, I'll get to it." because she was so irrational with her constant request. We are literally doing everything we can.
The whole time the Cal Trans guy is walking back and forth from our cars with shovels of dirt for us to spread under the tires. Then he had to help show Russ how to turn the wheel back and forth to get some friction. All the time constant interruptions from the lady standing outside the antique shop. Finally I got tired of walking over to her. When she told me something that I couldn't quite hear from a distance I responded with my normal answer. I must have not responded in a way that made sense to her because I then heard her exclaim, "They must be from Fresno." I just kept busy trying to unstuck our car. But in my head I wanted to tell her, "Lady I can beat that, I'm from Los Angeles." Eventually we unstuck the car and probably made that grumpy all lady very happy. But of course by that time we got out of that parking spot the other parking spot was taken. As we sat in the parking lot waiting for someone to pull out of a spot. I turned to Russ and we decided that I should check to see if there was any room at the diner. After all, it did look like a small diner. Sure enough there was only 2 spots left at the bar and there was 5 of us. So off we went to another diner.
A saying my Grandpa had when referring to bad drivers was "dirty dog". His wife would correct him with a smile saying "God bless the dirty dog". And so it goes with this old lady. "God bless the grumpy old lady".
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