The Ford Ranger Truck Saga, part 1
D.W.Q.M.: "Didn't you find two angry men stuck to my car?" -the Third Doctor
This is a story in two parts: part 2 can be found on Persephone's blog just as soon as she has time to write it. ;) I promised that I'd have my part written by today...so, here goes!
This is a story about a man and his truck...so what better way to start than to talk about another man and his car?
wait for it...
Okay, so it's 6pm on January 7th (actually, Jerm will argue that it's after 6pm) Anyhoo, he picks me up for our usual outing to McDs on a Friday night. As I get in the car, he begins to tell me about how he started to back out of P^2's driveway, realized he wasn't straight, and then realized that he couldn't fix it because he was starting to slide. (Oh, for the audience who may not know-P^2's driveway is on an incline, and has retaining walls on both sides). Lucky for him, he was on a straighter path than he originally thought, so he made it out without a problem.
skip ahead, skip ahead, skip ahead...
We're eating dinner at McDonalds and his phone rings-it's Adam. Remember the problem Jerm had getting out of the driveway? Poor Adam-he wasn't so lucky! :( He had somehow managed to end up on the wall-Jerm tried explaining to me, but I was having trouble picturing it. Since we were going out to Microcenter (yeah, like a computer store would have something to help) huh...wha? oh, sorry. *ahem* Anyhoo, since we were all the way out at SOM center, Jerm told him that we were also going to Walgreens and we'd pick up some salt for the driveway. A few minutes later Jerm gets another call from Adam-apparently Perseph thought she needed foil, but didn't.
yeah, I know-that has nothing to do with the story, but I thought it was funny. Be quiet you! I'm tellin' this part! :p
SO, Jerm and I check the first Walgreens on Mayfield from SOM Center-no salt. As we are driving along, he decides to check the next drugstore we were coming up to, which happened to be RiteAid. Still no salt. We stop at CVS, just because it would be amusing-when asked later, we could say, 'Hey! We checked every drugstore on Mayfield!' Unfortunately, it was getting close to 9, and we wanted to check Home Depot before they closed. We got there with 15 minutes to spare-Jerm ran in and came out with this huge bag of salt-he said it was the smallest one he could find. LOL.
When we get to the house, we see Adam's truck. Let me tell you about my first impression-you know when you're driving along, and see a car in the ditch in such a way that makes you think, 'how the heck did they do that?' That's exactly what I thought when I saw the poor truck! It was hanging off the wall at a 45 degree angle-I kid you not! When he first noticed there would be trouble, he tried steering the truck off the wall-unfortuantely he was at the end of the driveway, and the tree on the boulevard (oh, wait, wrong state...) *ahem the tree on the treelawn was preventing him from going any further. He tried calling a tow-truck, but the man said all his trucks were out, and since he couldn't picture what Adam was saying to him, the cost would start at 60 dollars and go up from there, and he couldn't be there until the morning. Not cool. This instantly became the backup plan.
So, you ask-what became the main plan? Ohhhhh, you're gonna love this! It's my favorite part! :) We'd throw salt on the driveway, and then we, the entire gang, were going to attempt to push the truck off the wall.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
We threw the salt on the driveway, then played a game of Mario Party 6-by the time the game was finished (around 11:30), the salt had worked it's magic on the driveway, so we decided to give it a try. Of course, just as we are walking out the door, my cell phone rings-I ended up telling the person on the other end that I had to go because I had to help push a friend's truck off the wall. The sound of the astonishment in the caller's voice was amusing-I hung up my phone, went out side to the side of the house where Perseph was peeking around the corner. The guys were already trying to push the truck, so I decided to hang back until they stopped for a breather, just in case they succeeded-that's all they'd need-finally getting the truck off the wall, then having to run back into it just to avoid hitting me. Once they stopped, I ran down the driveway and got my first really good look at the situation.
Adam's truck is a rear-wheel drive, and one of those rear wheel's wasn't even touching the ground! Yikes! As soon as they are ready to start pushing again, I lend a hand...or rather, my entire upper-body strength, what little of it there is. ;) After we had a go (Adam at the wheel; me, paul and Jerm pushing from behind) Paul decided to take a quick break and Perseph joined us behind the truck-after another try, Adam got out and suggested that one of the women get behind the wheel. Since I haven't been behind the wheel in almost 2 years, I immediately declined-so Perseph was elected to the position of gas-pedal pusher and steerer. When she got in the car, she looked a little worried (heck, wouldn't you be if you were sitting on a wall at a 45 degree angle?) "This isn't going to tip over, is it?" she asked. "Naw, you'll be fine" was the all too quick answer from her brother.
We tried again-Perseph started the car, and the four of us;Adam, Paul, Jerm, and me (Hey! It's getting a bit crowded back here!!) lifted the truck a few inches off the wall and started to push. Boy, we were smelling burning rubber... we can do this, we can do this, we can do this A few tries and several grunts later, the truck pushed off the wall and back onto the driveway!!
YEAH!
Immediately after that, it started to roll down the driveway...
NO!
Not to worry, we stopped it's backwards progression...and secured the parking brake. ;)
We all stood around the truck and marveled at our achievement-congratualated each other, and Perseph proclaimed, "Alcholic drinks for everybody!"
Yea!!!! We totally kicked ass.
The moral of this story? Make sure you always have strong friends around when it snows. ;)
End Part 1.
Stay tuned for part 2 on Peresph's blog!!
*Update 1/20/05* Part 2
This is a story in two parts: part 2 can be found on Persephone's blog just as soon as she has time to write it. ;) I promised that I'd have my part written by today...so, here goes!
This is a story about a man and his truck...so what better way to start than to talk about another man and his car?
wait for it...
Okay, so it's 6pm on January 7th (actually, Jerm will argue that it's after 6pm) Anyhoo, he picks me up for our usual outing to McDs on a Friday night. As I get in the car, he begins to tell me about how he started to back out of P^2's driveway, realized he wasn't straight, and then realized that he couldn't fix it because he was starting to slide. (Oh, for the audience who may not know-P^2's driveway is on an incline, and has retaining walls on both sides). Lucky for him, he was on a straighter path than he originally thought, so he made it out without a problem.
skip ahead, skip ahead, skip ahead...
We're eating dinner at McDonalds and his phone rings-it's Adam. Remember the problem Jerm had getting out of the driveway? Poor Adam-he wasn't so lucky! :( He had somehow managed to end up on the wall-Jerm tried explaining to me, but I was having trouble picturing it. Since we were going out to Microcenter (yeah, like a computer store would have something to help) huh...wha? oh, sorry. *ahem* Anyhoo, since we were all the way out at SOM center, Jerm told him that we were also going to Walgreens and we'd pick up some salt for the driveway. A few minutes later Jerm gets another call from Adam-apparently Perseph thought she needed foil, but didn't.
yeah, I know-that has nothing to do with the story, but I thought it was funny. Be quiet you! I'm tellin' this part! :p
SO, Jerm and I check the first Walgreens on Mayfield from SOM Center-no salt. As we are driving along, he decides to check the next drugstore we were coming up to, which happened to be RiteAid. Still no salt. We stop at CVS, just because it would be amusing-when asked later, we could say, 'Hey! We checked every drugstore on Mayfield!' Unfortunately, it was getting close to 9, and we wanted to check Home Depot before they closed. We got there with 15 minutes to spare-Jerm ran in and came out with this huge bag of salt-he said it was the smallest one he could find. LOL.
When we get to the house, we see Adam's truck. Let me tell you about my first impression-you know when you're driving along, and see a car in the ditch in such a way that makes you think, 'how the heck did they do that?' That's exactly what I thought when I saw the poor truck! It was hanging off the wall at a 45 degree angle-I kid you not! When he first noticed there would be trouble, he tried steering the truck off the wall-unfortuantely he was at the end of the driveway, and the tree on the boulevard (oh, wait, wrong state...) *ahem the tree on the treelawn was preventing him from going any further. He tried calling a tow-truck, but the man said all his trucks were out, and since he couldn't picture what Adam was saying to him, the cost would start at 60 dollars and go up from there, and he couldn't be there until the morning. Not cool. This instantly became the backup plan.
So, you ask-what became the main plan? Ohhhhh, you're gonna love this! It's my favorite part! :) We'd throw salt on the driveway, and then we, the entire gang, were going to attempt to push the truck off the wall.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
We threw the salt on the driveway, then played a game of Mario Party 6-by the time the game was finished (around 11:30), the salt had worked it's magic on the driveway, so we decided to give it a try. Of course, just as we are walking out the door, my cell phone rings-I ended up telling the person on the other end that I had to go because I had to help push a friend's truck off the wall. The sound of the astonishment in the caller's voice was amusing-I hung up my phone, went out side to the side of the house where Perseph was peeking around the corner. The guys were already trying to push the truck, so I decided to hang back until they stopped for a breather, just in case they succeeded-that's all they'd need-finally getting the truck off the wall, then having to run back into it just to avoid hitting me. Once they stopped, I ran down the driveway and got my first really good look at the situation.
Adam's truck is a rear-wheel drive, and one of those rear wheel's wasn't even touching the ground! Yikes! As soon as they are ready to start pushing again, I lend a hand...or rather, my entire upper-body strength, what little of it there is. ;) After we had a go (Adam at the wheel; me, paul and Jerm pushing from behind) Paul decided to take a quick break and Perseph joined us behind the truck-after another try, Adam got out and suggested that one of the women get behind the wheel. Since I haven't been behind the wheel in almost 2 years, I immediately declined-so Perseph was elected to the position of gas-pedal pusher and steerer. When she got in the car, she looked a little worried (heck, wouldn't you be if you were sitting on a wall at a 45 degree angle?) "This isn't going to tip over, is it?" she asked. "Naw, you'll be fine" was the all too quick answer from her brother.
We tried again-Perseph started the car, and the four of us;Adam, Paul, Jerm, and me (Hey! It's getting a bit crowded back here!!) lifted the truck a few inches off the wall and started to push. Boy, we were smelling burning rubber... we can do this, we can do this, we can do this A few tries and several grunts later, the truck pushed off the wall and back onto the driveway!!
YEAH!
Immediately after that, it started to roll down the driveway...
NO!
Not to worry, we stopped it's backwards progression...and secured the parking brake. ;)
We all stood around the truck and marveled at our achievement-congratualated each other, and Perseph proclaimed, "Alcholic drinks for everybody!"
Yea!!!! We totally kicked ass.
The moral of this story? Make sure you always have strong friends around when it snows. ;)
End Part 1.
Stay tuned for part 2 on Peresph's blog!!
*Update 1/20/05* Part 2
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