A harrowing tale of danger and doh's

After digging out our car out of our own driveway not once, not twice, but three times, the Goose and I spending about an hour and a half getting the chains on, once we finally got them on...the snow essentially melted. It still required chains to get off our street, but once we did, smooth sailing.

Well, not sailing...more like snowmobiling. Whatever.

So we headed out to my family Thanksgiving in St. Helens. We were going to have it at Dad's place because my brothers' place was still too hard to get in. Lots of snow.

First, spent about a half hour getting the chains off in a mall parking lot. Since the snow was all melting, it was a lot like working in a creek, small running body of water type circumstances. So my feet were wet which makes me cranky. Plus, I was jealous of the people canoeing through the parking lot. I wanted to go kayaking.

Anyway, drive the hour out to home, streets are clear, get to the top of Dad's block...do'h! His street is as bad as ours. Thought I saw a path that could get us to his place. I was wrong. We got stuck.

A guy with a shovel helped us dig out, we got moving...and got stuck. Got about 3 houses from Dad's when we got really, really stuck. 

About that time, Rick, a family friend coming to the celebration, showed up. The Goose wanted to put chains on. I really, really, really didn't. We were three houses away, those !@#$%&^*&^% chains are a pain to put on and almost as bad to take off. What was the point since as soon as we got off the street we would have to take them off anyway? What we needed was a super hero.

Well, Rick got gung-ho about putting chains on too. Which he did. Good thing, because I wasn't going to.

And finally, about 4:15 or so we got to Dad's. Took an hour and a quarter to go one block. Awesome. 

I put Dad's shovel back in his shed in the backyard, down a super slick ramp.

So I had the Goose call my brothers and tell them to park at the top of the street, I would come get them because I had chains on. Arlene kindly put my socks in the dryer.

And within 5 minutes, got a call. One of my brothers saw what I had seen, thought he could drive to Dad's, and got stuck.

Back on go the wet socks. 

Back on go the wet shoes. 

Back out to the shed to get the shovel. 

*sigh*

Finally, about 5:30 we got him dug up to Dad's.

By this point I was very tired, very frustrated, and very soaked. Had we not ended up parking him behind me, I would have left right about then. 

Fortunately, he did park behind me because it was a really good time. We had a lot of fun. There was my Dad, Arlene, Kenneth, Stanica, their kids Isaac and Clara, Phillip, Tracy, the Goose and I, and then our friend Karl, Jim, and Rick.

In a way, it was a lot like old times with a gathering of friends we consider family.

 Had some turkey and ham and rolls...not sure what the other people had.

Anyway, about 7 we decided to break it up, largely because of how hard it had been to get in. 

And it started again. 

An hour later, after trying to get his chains on (which was never successful), we dug my brother's car far enough to get him off the street. By the time we got back up the street and got to a place I could remove the chains and took the chains off, it was 8:15. 

So let's do the math; 1 hour drive out there, one hour drive back. About an hour and a half at Dads. 

And about 3:45 of digging snow.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Oh, and by the way....Bah, Humbug.

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