Over the hill and through the woods, to Haldeman’s home we go. The car just can’t stay on our steep driveway, through the white and drifted snow.
We have indoctrinated a new Haldeman into the driveway chronicles this year, year two in this house. Somehow, during a window of a few hours, while I wasn’t paying attention, a few inches of snow came down. Right after the snow stopped, Tayden called because he had to leave work to drive home. He had finished his shift at the local grocery store, pushing carts around a cold snowy parking lot. He had never driven in the snow. Since it was dark out, I didn’t realize the extent of the snow, so I told him it would be fine. And certainly the main road, Rt. 30, would be plowed. He had our ancient Acura, which is fine in the snow (when compared to some of the rear wheel drive behemoths of yesteryear), but it isn’t one of our Subarus, which are amazing in the snow. And Bert is great right up until our driveway, which bests him with his high center of gravity.
About fifteen minutes later, Tayden called to let me know that he was in the neighbor’s front yard and still in the car. Route 30 wasn’t plowed and neither was our street and he white-knuckled it home and couldn’t make it up the driveway. All that seemed bad, so I rallied the troops. We all jumped up like it was an old drill (even Abby, Trent’s girlfriend), throwing on coats and boots, some grabbing shovels and salt, while others headed down the hill to determine how to get Tayden out of the snow bank. By the time I handed out shovels and salt shakers (see the picture), the kids had the Acura out of the snow and parked in the neighbor’s driveway. Our neighbors across the street are angels, putting up with our driveway chronicles. They had even plowed our driveway once that day with their ATV, but it wasn’t enough. Tayden had made it partway up, and slid back down, turning 90 degrees so he looked like he had just pulled off the side of the road, except he was going the wrong way. While Tayden pontificated that he was never driving in the snow again in the Acura, we went to work on the driveway, like a well oiled machine. Travis even got the old snow blower going, but with the wind, it seemed like the snow would blast out of the chute right onto Travis, no matter which way the chute was facing. After all that, Tessa got to learn how to drive a car (without AWD) up our driveway after it is shoveled and salted, because our driveway is so bad that you still need technique to make it work AFTER you salt the devil out of it. It only took two tries and a few of us to push from behind.
On the first try, she stopped part way up because traction was waning. Travis explained that that’s what we (the pushers) are for and to just slow down and allow us to help, but NEVER STOP, because no force of Haldeman can get a car to start moving from halfway up the drive in the middle of winter. On the second try, she made it up with only a little outside Haldeman boost at the peak of the driveway’s incline.
My current plan is to put a shovel and salt shaker in each car and have everyone park at the neighbor’s house. They have a couple parking spots near the end of their driveway. I’ve never seen them use the spots, so they may have put them there for whoever occupies our house in winter. We’ve certainly used them. I’ll have to send them some wine for their understanding.
In the meantime, if you plan to visit us during the winter, let us know in advance, so we can have the driveway ready for your arrival, complete with pushers. And a quick shoutout to Taryn, who turned 22 yesterday. We really know how to celebrate at the Haldeman house.
