i was walking home the other night, after our first significant snowfall, and came upon our neighbors, three young female undergraduates, trying to get their car unstuck from a small snowbank (you know the snow bank at the intersection of the driveway and the road that gets formed when the plow comes by? yeah, that one). i offered to help, and went to get some cardboard for under the tires, and some sand, and a shovel. when i came back, i asked if they had tried rocking the car, or if they even knew how to rock the car (forward, then reverse, then forward, then reverse). really they only had to get unstuck and then take a wider turn into the driveway, and i think they would have been fine. i was all set to teach them a few things about how to get yourself out of sticky snow situations, when an SUV pulled up behind us, and a guy popp
ed his head out the window and said, 'i've got a strap, you want me to pull you out?' they were delighted, of course, and the kindess of strangers is certainly a good thing. but all my hopes of teaching these young women a little self-sufficiency went down the tubes. ah well...
in other snow related news, i love my ergonomic shovel. it took a little while to get used to, and it's no good for digging out a tire, but as a back saver goes, it's awesome.
