Last Wednesday, we had a little snow. It wasn’t the snow-meggeddon that was predicted, but after school, while we were on the bus to LaPorte for an away swim/dive meet, it was treacherous. I took some pictures of the accidents we saw on the way. During the meet, instead of continuing to snow as predicted, the snow stopped. So the drive home was way better. I had Mary (a GREAT bus driver) at the wheel, so I knew I’d be fine, but I’d still rather it be easy. 

That week, Trent had been driving Bert. But on that particular Wednesday, he returned from an interview in Indianapolis early, and he came and swapped Bert for the Acura before the snow came, so that I would have Bert for the late drive home after the meet. That was lucky! While the main roads were clear, the supplementary roads were not. And while I consider myself to live on a main road, the snow plow drivers consider it a supplementary road, so it was nice to have Bert’s size and 4-wheel drive. And it wasn’t that long ago that I couldn’t get up the driveway in the Acura. 

So, I drove home with cautious confidence in Bert, happy to be back in my own car. The final test was the driveway. Bert couldn’t make it up the unshoveled drive. I was hugely disappointed. I actually didn’t call home to get the boys (Trent and Tayden) out to shovel because I wanted to see if Bert could do it. After a few tries, I put on Bert’s brake and walked up my driveway. I rustled up the boys to help me shovel and salt the drive. Trent was reluctant to leave The Bachelor, but I reminded him that he lived here for free and I paid for his college, and he got moving. I left my phone and car keys in the house (not on purpose) and we walked outside…but WHERE WAS BERT!!!! OMG, OMG, OMG…I ran (as much as I could on a snowy, icy ski slope of a driveway) down the driveway. There was Bert, in the road and perpendicular to the fairly busy road we live on. The road that was considered supplementary, so it was covered with a snow/ice combination. He had slid with his wheels locked down the drive. I am still not sure how Bert missed the electrical box and mail box at the bottom of the drive. I ran/slid down there. Bert was cockeyed and mostly in the road, a few inches from the mailbox. Actually, he was less than a few inches from the mailbox. The tire mark was so close to the electrical box, I couldn’t figure out how Bert missed it. And I think that the electrical box powers the whole block, because nobody else along my stretch of road has a box like that. Sure, put the box at the bottom of the ski-hill drive…that makes sense. Nobody will get pissed off when the power gets knocked out when a giant SUV surfs down the driveway and takes out the box in the middle of winter. 

So, look at the tire marks in the pictures that Travis took the following morning. You tell me how my giant SUV missed those things. I have decided that I am the luckiest of the unlucky. Because if I was lucky lucky, Bert would have stayed put. And maybe cars that may have been unlucky enough to have to get around Bert on that icy road at least had a chance to see him because I also left Bert’s lights on. Luckiest of the unlucky because nobody hit Bert. 

It was a bit tricky to move Bert out of his spot. I had left him running, so I didn’t need the keys, but maybe the vibration of running is what got him sliding. Again, the luckiest of the unlucky. I managed to shimmy Bert out of his spot without putting him in the ditch, and I parked him in the two spots that the neighbor has towards the bottom of his driveway. I had to trot back up to the house, past the boys who had begun shoveling and salting, to grab my car keys and phone, so I could text the neighbor and let him know it was my car parked there. He said to use the spot anytime. Oh, I think I will be needing it again, tonight, after another swim/dive meet that involves potential snow. We cleared the driveway and moved Bert up the drive. I decided to go to bed before anything else exciting happened…like a cat showing up covered in vomit…because that’s what happened the last time. 

I blame Travis a little because he had told his dad that the driveway wasn’t giving us any trouble. Until it was. Lucky Jo. Have a great week everyone. Stay safe out there.