I had to stop at the cleaners on the way home tonight. I went there this morning but the parking lot was a sheet of ice so I didn’t get out of my car. Life is very different in the winter and you’ve really got to plan ahead.
I don’t know about you, but after a work day all I want to do is get home. I had another stop to make at the library and then finally I was home.
I mentioned before that I live in a 90-year-old house. The great thing is that we have a garage and for many houses from that era there was no garage. However, if you did have a garage back then it was not attached to your house as is the case with ours. We have to walk across our backyard to the garage where there is an alley running behind our house and that’s where our garage opens into.
My husband works a part-time job every Wednesday night. So that we didn’t lose the parking spot out front of our house, I decided to park there since he won’t be home until 8:30 p.m. tonight.
Fiasco to follow.
I got out of my car on the driver’s side and it was all ice beneath my feet. I had to hold my car all the way around to the back and somehow almost body straddle the spare tire cover on the back of my SUV. At one point I was actually hugging the back tire cover. Oh yeah, I am also now ankle-deep in water from all the rain and any melting that may have occurred today when rumor has it a big giant yellow round thingie was in the sky.
Next I find myself on the very back right rear corner of my car, standing in the cold water. Did I mention in a shear act of nothing short of cockiness, I didn’t put my boots on because I didn’t think I’d need them?
From there it was a little Stretch Armstrong to get my right foot up on the curb without letting hold of the car. I am only 5′ 2″ so my legs are not very long but I think tonight they stretched a foot or more! Once one foot was on the icy curb, I pushed myself with enough momentum to get the other foot up there while still holding on to the car because the curb is all ice.
I now have to inch my way along the passenger side of the car, all while on the icy curb. I get to the passenger side front door and open it. I have to mimic a push up so that my upper body and arms can reach my purse which is on my passenger seat and then grab the handle of my backpack which is on my passenger floor. I grab the handle, forgetting that the handle pulls up so you can pull it wheelie-bag-style. When the handle pulls out, it’s long enough that the bottom of the backpack is in the water along the curb. My new company laptop is in the backpack? Of course it is.
I manage to pull the backpack out of the water pretty quickly and now I have one final long step to get to the stairs leading up to my house which are, thankfully, ice-free. Before I close the passenger door, I realize there is a plastic bag still on my passenger floor. What’s that I wonder?
And then I remember. It’s my boots.
That groundhog had better not be screwing with me . . .