Oy vey! What a day!

When we woke up this morning to Chester’s insistent caterwauling—insistent demand for breakfast, that is—it was already lightly snowing outside. It wasn’t supposed to do that until this afternoon. That by itself would not be bad except for the fact that Terry had to attend an EGA (Embroiderers’ Guild of America) meeting over in Wellsboro. She would have to take her little Aveo and I would have to go get the mail (the post office is only open 9-11 on Saturday) and run a few other errands down in Mansfield.

She left at 8:30 and I went down the hill around 9:30. There was already about an inch of snow on the ground around the Aerie. Upon descending 3-400 feet however, I found there was no snow on the road or grass. What the heck? Apparently, like that little character in the Lil Abner comics that walked around with a tiny rain cloud over his head, it was only snowing above 1900 feet and the Aerie was at 2100 feet.

Well, I ran my errands and retreated back up the hill confirming that it was indeed snowing over the Aerie and on the slope directly below. I sat and watched it snow and grew increasingly concerned about Terry’s chances at getting back up the hill. Turns out I was right to be concerned.

Her meeting ended around noon and she drove back toward the Aerie along Route 6. The road was wet but there was no snow. She left Route 6 and headed up, and up , and up toward the Aerie. She never made it. About 200 feet from the driveway, the accumulated snow—all 2 inches of it at this point—packed down under the front wheels of her Aveo and became so much ice. Her “all season” tires spun on that ice and that was all she wrote. Once they began spinning and she lost momentum, forward progress ended. That’s when I got a phone call.

“I’m stuck,” she says.

“Really? Try turning around and going down the hill. Then try again.” And I hung up.

I got my boots on and headed for the road to see she was easily within sight (and sound) and was spinning her wheels as she attempted to back out of a neighbors drive and head down the hill. She succeeded and disappeared around the bend before I could get far enough down the road to intercept her. I waited to see if she would try to make it up the road one more time.

After a few minutes, I grew concerned that she might have put the little yellow car in the ditch so I called her cell.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the log cabin…the other log cabin down the hill. I’ve met the neighbor and he’s going to drive me up the hill in his Jeep. I’ll leave the Aveo here until later.”

“Okay, I’ll try to keep Molly out of the road.” (Molly is a lovable shepherd mix that belongs to another neighbor just below us. She’s quiet as anything and a talented escape artist. When she first wandered into our yard early last summer, I put a rope around her neck and tied her to the front porch railing before I took the telephone number off her tags and called her owner. Molly’s owner apologized and said she would send her husband up as soon as he returned from the post office. He showed up about 45 minutes later and Molly was still curled up on the front porch. But she wasn’t tied to anything anymore. She had chewed through the rope and was happily napping when her owner showed. He laughed about her chewing through the rope saying she had done the same thing to a seat belt in his car ad about a dozen ropes in the yard. I suggested he get a chain—a very thick chain—but since she is so loving and quiet…well. I guess no chain was ever bought.)

A few minutes later a Jeep Wrangler comes up the hill in 4-wheel drive and deposits Terry on the doorstep. I got to meet the new neighbor (he moved in to his place a little after we moved in here) and we showed him around our log home.

After he had gone, Terry and I decided it was time to see about getting some real snow tires or studded tires for her little car. If I had been at the Bolt Hole (where, by the way, there may be a foot of snow or more this weekend) she would have been SOL.

Of course the local tire place in Mansfield is closed by the time we get there and we just managed to find the garage where we take our vehicles open. So, rather than traipse all over, we stopped and told the mechanic what we needed (one pair of rims and snow/studded tires to go on the front) and, “oh, by the way,” could you do an oil change and 35K mile check up on it while you’re at it. We’ll just leave it here, okay?

Did I mention that it was not snowing down on Route 6 or in Mansfield? It didn’t start again until we passed where Terry had been stopped earlier. It lightly snowed all afternoon and when I looked at the radar I could clearly see it was only snowing along the mountain ridge. I would guess it was snowing only above 1800 feet.

Now, with her car in the shop, I’ve got to ferry her down to church in the morning. Oh well, I’ll stop at the Goose and get an apple fritter, coffee and the papers and search the ads for a gently used 4-wheel drive vehicle. Something with reasonable weight and that’s able to climb that last 200 feet of hill. I don’t really want a third vehicle, but it was nice to have Rick’s Blazer here for a while. Hey, it’s only money.