Free At Last!

And then, at 4:32 pm, my car rolled out of its parking spot.

I know I shouldn't make such a big deal about digging my car out — or in this case, de-icing it — especially in light of the fact that we're due to get another 2-4 inches of snow on Sunday, and because doing so only serves as a jinx and will guarantee I'll be stuck again come tomorrow morning, but I don't know ... getting my car out of its spot today felt like a major accomplishment.

After clearing all the snow off my car, crushing the ice and packed snow around my tires, and rocking the car back and forth by shifting into Drive and Reverse over and over, I still hadn't gotten very far. A neighbor came over and volunteered to put the car in reverse for me while I pushed, and that didn't do much. Nor did it help when two other neighbors came over to help me push. And we all kept looking to see why I couldn't move, but there was seemingly no good reason because all the wheels were clear and the mound of snow behind my car was low enough. It had to be something else.

And then, all of a sudden, without any help, after people had gone their own separate ways, my car just, uh, moved. Backwards. All the way over the ice and snow and onto the black pavement. And I could finally see what was holding it in place all that time. And the answer, plain and simple, seemed to be ice. But not just any ice — this must have been super powered ice from another world, whose grip on my car knew no limits. It was determined to not let me go to the Atrium, or Best Buy, or any of the other places I had to go today.

And yet, I can say that my patience paid off and I was able to go to those places and more (despite the late start to my day, mainly because I was waiting for the air and ground to warm up above freezing). Now we'll see what happens in the morning when I go to move my car again. Still, today I feel a great deal of accomplishment.