Windshields and Bugs

I need to stop commenting on the weather.

Last week I wrote that it had been raining and 44 degrees almost every day for two months, and then it turned dry and cold.

Yesterday I wrote that the air was dry and cold and no snow had fallen, not even in the mountains.

This morning I looked out the window when the alarm went off and saw the snow.

I had planned on going in to work today at the regular time even though I was scheduled to attend an end-of-day meeting that I did not anticipate would be over until 7:30pm at the earliest.

But when I saw the snow I instantly decided to go in to work later.

It was still almost dark out, my car was dead, my truck was too light to get up the hills and I knew I would have to scavenge the yard looking for things to weigh down the back end.

Wishing I had checked the weather before I went to bed, and wishing that I had parked my truck up at a turnaround at the top of my road (which is gravelled by the city) I reset my alarm for 8am and went back to sleep.

After waking up a second time, calling the office, drinking coffee and looking at the snow (not that much of it - pretty - my car could handle it if it was running..........) I went out to start up my truck.

Taking pictures as I made my way down the walkway, the day was quiet and grey and pretty and very still in that way of country roads early in the morning right after a fresh snowfall.

I searched around for heavy things in the yard to weigh down the back of my truck. 

My son's treasure chest!  No - frozen solid to the ground.

A milk can!  No - frozen solid to the ground

Landscaping rocks!  Some too big for me to even try and the rest I tried..........yup.  Frozen solid to the ground.

A cinder block, not frozen to the ground - perfect but not enough.

After another 15 minutes of scavenging I had a cinder block, one heavy piece of wood, a boat anchor, a rock and even a large potted plant sitting in the back of the truck.

I suddenly felt like one of the Beverly Hillbillies but kept fingers crossed that it would be enough.

While the truck was still idling, I walked back up to the house, kissed my dog goodbye on top of the head, grabbed my bag and walked out the door.

I backed the truck out of the driveway and drove it down a small hill to a turn-around so I could drive back up and out of the hollow.

First test.

It failed.

I turned around down at the.......turnaround.........put it in drive and almost instantly started to slide.

Backed it up.  Tried to go forward.  Slide.

Backed it up.  Tried to go forward.  Slide.

Backed it up.  Tried to go forward.  Sliding towards the drop off.

Backed it up.  Tried to go forward.  Still sliding towards the drop off.

I didn't want to drop off. 

That would not have been pretty, so I pulled the truck as close to the side and out of the way as I could and abandoned it down at the bottom of the hill only two minutes drive from my house..............

Knocking on a neighbor's door I met the wife for the very first time and explained my predicament to her.

Many people get stuck down at the bottom of this hill, she told me.

Oh.........

Getting my car restarted seemed like the best solution, and after checking that I had booster cables under the seat of my truck (I did) and that she had a battery charger (she did) we walked towards my house.

As we were making our way to the house I realized that if she had a battery charger that we would need to plug it in somewhere.

It was a LONG way from my house to the driveway.

I had a number of extension cords that I could string together but it was a LONG way from my house to the driveway.

After looking at the battery of the car and looking at the distance to the house my newly acquainted neighbor decided to go get her car and see if we could boost my car that way.

Bottom line??

We could attach the cable to one battery connection but no matter how hard we tried we could not get the second battery connection either attached or even close. 

It was just too tight - everything under the hood seemingly jammed together.

Needless to say we could not get my car started.

I thanked the lady, who had never met me in her life, for all of her help and said goodbye to her so she could go about doing whatever she had planned for the rest of her day...............

All the while I was loading down my truck, trying to get my car started, walking back and forth between down the hill and up the hill and my house, I was on the phone in seemingly continuous conversations with LC, then my work, then my boss.

I looked at my watch, then my truck, then my car, then my phone, and I knew that it was going to be a very very long day...............

After unsuccessful attempts to get my car started, and after thanking the lady for all of her time and help, I walked back up to the house.

More phone calls with work and LC and emails to my boss who has work for me that I need to get done before leaving for Sitka and yes I will (somehow) be at the meeting tonight..............

I called a number of automotive repair shops. 

Either the calls went straight to voice mail or they would not come out this far from town or they were slammed with work and could not spare the time to come this far out from town.

I sat on the couch trying to warm up and having absolutely no idea what to do next.

What to do and who to call.

No freakin' idea.

There was nobody.

Who ya gonna call????

Ridiculously for one moment my mind flashed back to my oldest son's favorite movie when he was about 5. 

Who ya gonna call? 

GHOST BUSTERS!!

LC called me to see what was happening and I proceeded to melt down on the phone for a few minutes and then between the two of us we come up with the idea of calling a wrecker.

They could come out and either just restart my car or tow me into town and have a new battery installed.

The car boost and the tow both cost the same regardless, so I told them to tow me into town and I would get the new battery. 

Another wad of cash - poof - gone.

More money more money more money but it had to be done.............

I made more calls to LC and work and my boss and then proceeded to wait.

They told me they could not make it to the house until 2:30pm

At 2:50 I called again to find out where the tow truck was and it had just left the Valley and was on the way.

When the tow truck driver appeared he boosted my car (one cable attached to the connection on the battery and the other attached to a metal strip running across the top of the battery.

Oh........that's where it goes...........

We got the car started quickly, I turned it around and he loaded it onto the tow truck.

When we drove up the hill leading out of our road and onto the main side road I thought "What the hell was I thinking?  No way would my truck make this hill."

Suddenly the hill looked a good deal bigger than I remembered it.

The drive into town was uneventful and the snow made everything look beautiful and quiet and very different.

So beautiful..................

30 minutes after we arrived in town and $275 later I had a new battery, my car was running fine and I made the meeting that I could not afford to not miss.

It was definitely a bum battery.  We boosted it at the house so I could turn it around and had to boost it again when we arrived in Juneau so they could drive it into the garage.

Even though there was ice on the road my car managed fine and without incident on the way home, and right now it is parked up at the top of the hill at the turnaround.

A long and tiring and frustrating and expensive day..............

One of my favorite belongings.

A "treasure chest" given to me by my youngest son Chris when he was about 13 years old..........

The final insult of the day?

I walked home from the turnaround, loved on my dog for a while, changed into pajamas and only then realized that I did not have my cell phone in my coat pocket.

I checked pockets again.  I checked my bag. 

Finally I begrudgingly realized that I had left it somewhere or dropped it somewhere.

Did it fall out of my pocket in the car?

Or while I was walking down from the turnaround?

Or any place really between my office and my house?

I grabbed a jacket and still in pj's walked back up to the turnaround and sure enough it was on the floorboard of the car.

It is supposed to rain by tomorrow afternoon and with luck I will be able to head down to the turnaround at the bottom of my road and retrieve my truck.

Sometimes you're the windshield.

And sometimes you're the bug............

While digging through a box of clothes a couple of days ago I came across this Santa.

LC and I bought him at a flea market here in Juneau a few months ago.

He's now resting on top of the TV cabinet and my Christmas decorating is done...........