back in the saddle
|
|
| my city is still breathing back in the saddle |
|
|
Friday, October 31, 2003 I have the best father ever so I went over to my parent's house tonight, I wanted my mother to take in the sides on my hallowe'en costume. I left around midnight, 2 hours after my father had gone to bed and an hour after my mother. Around 12:30 I get to my block, and am feeling quite confident in the road cleaning abilites of the City of Calgary (as well as my own driving abilities and the snow-control capacities of my car) and decide to park my car in the parking lot behind my building. I must digress here and make a few key points: 1) In case you haven't heard, Calgary recently recieved the early hallowe'en treat (or maybe trick) of a shitload of snow. 2) If you've seen my alley you can stop reading here, if not it's a block long, and 75% of it is hill. Steep hill. We're talking like 45 degree angle hill. I wish I was kidding. My parking lot entry is smack in the middle of the hill. At the bottom is a big dumpster and random disposed furniture, the sides of the alley feature such lovely things as a concrete wall and big bushes hiding the fact that it drops off behind them. I've had bad experiences with the alley before, and now will only drive up it into my lot in the winter. Back to the main story.. so I drive up the alley. Just as I turn my wheels to go into my lot I hit a patch of ice. I start sliding. backwards. sideways. into the aforementioned bushes. I stop. My car is sideways in the alley. I'm shit scared. I call AMA. After about 15 min on hold, I get Jared, a very nice friendly guy who sounded like he really wanted to help me (maybe it was the fear in my voice) but couldn't get a tow truck out to me for anywhere between 3 to 5 hours. I told him to order one anyway, and I'd call if I managed to get out. Now I was not getting out of that car. I had no idea what a shift in weight would do, plus I wanted to be on the lookout for anyone coming up/down the alley that could help me (or at least warn them I was there). I was also terrified, not really about losing my car, I've been plotting a way to go carless for a while now, but really of hitting something and hurting myself/someone else/someone else's property. I just didn't need to deal with that. Plus, alley's are scary places. What made it worse was that I was RIGHT BEHIND MY BUILDING. I could see it. I should have been home, watching crappy late night tv or searching for random things on the internet so Trite can add them to his Christmas wishlist. Or sleeping. Or something else. So I phone my dad. I know he's sleeping, but he has a truck and dad's are good at times like these, if not to help at least to calm you down. He rushes over, gets here in an amazingly short time. I play bejewelled on my palm in an attempt to calm myself down and pass the time. Dad arrives, and basically digs/pushes my car out while yelling orders at me. I proably kicked so much snow in his face, and frustrated him to no end ("how the hell am I supossed to push your car if your foot's on the break?" "but dad I'm fucking terrified here, I'm sliding!") The man fucking rocks. Ten min. later I'm backing out of the alley slower than I've ever backed out before, free of concrete walls and bushes. Then I'm driving the long way around (so as to avoid any steep hills - we're talking going 6 blocks to end up half a block from where I was) to get to the front of my building so I can park on the street. It's been half an hour since I got inside and I'm still shaking. And AMA said I'd need a winch. Ha, I have my father. posted by kim | 1:53 a.m.|
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||