Do I still have all of my bumper?

I'm still not sure. I forgot to check when I finally got my car into the driveway tonight. I guess the "good" news is that it had already been mangled by another snowbank during the last snow pileup.. but tonight was special in so many ways.

I left work at the normal time to haul butt across Cambridge and Arlington to pick up Benji at daycare. His daycare, if you recall from last year.. is at the top of Mount Everest. Our car.. a Mazda 5.. is a lovely car.. family-mobile.. perfect in every way.. almost every way. It's a piece of crap in the snow and because of the damned alloy wheels that are shredding from failed parallel parking attempts over 3 years we're lucky if we can keep air in the tires. Ok.. back to today.

I made the decision to go for the halfway point up Mount Everest. That halfway point is a public street and is treated and plowed as such.. I was fairly confident that I could get up that part and then, with luck, bully the rest of the way up, or.. park there and walk the rest of the way.

My plan didn't work out. I got halfway up.. threw it into a low gear and gunned it and hoped for the best. I got about 20 feet up the next section of completely unplowed roadway before the car completely lost its grip on the road and I just slid back in a counterclockwise motion. I "landed" with my front bumper up against a curb, stopped by a large snowbank. If I hadn't been so pissed.. I would have gotten out of the car and taken a picture.. it really was quite the move.

Now.. picture this.. it's 5:22pm. 95% of the parents seem to pick up their kids between 5:25 and 5:30pm.. when the daycare closes. So yes... there were about 10 other cars also trying to get as far up the hill as possible. Those that were already up the hill had to wait for me to dislodge my vehicle before they could go anywhere and those that were down the hill had to either wait (if they had 4WD and felt lucky) or park their cars and walk... waving at me with "holy crap that could have been me" eyes.

Right when I was about to leave the car for dead.. a very nice plow driver stopped on his way up the public part of the road and pulled over and came over shaking his head saying "oh no.. this is bad... this is wicked bad..." He shoveled sand/salt around my tires and plowed areas he could reach without hitting my car (all of this while other parents are coming and going with their kids) and then he pushed me out. I'm not sure if all of my bumper came with me given the crunching sound.. but I was happy to be free.

I then parked the car.. thanked the very nice man profusely while he was still saying something about "wicked hahd ta get cahs round town t'day" .. and I walked up the hill to pick up my son.

Benji was sitting on the couch playing drums with Ruth. She laughed as soon as I walked through the door. She had heard from all of the other parents about my predicament. She asked if the car was still stuck and if she should have Memo (her son) come to help. All is fine. I'm back to being relaxed..walking up an icy slope will do that to you.

Given that I had to get Benjamin back down the mountain.. I opted to get him completely geared up with all of his snow gear. Let the screaming ensue..

When we walked outside, Benji was very concerned about all the snow all over the ground and told me to be careful because it was icy. Thanks, kid.. just wait for the hill. As we started walking down the hill.. we found that the big city plows had made it to that intersection where I got stuck. They were a big peaved that my car was parked on the street near that intersection but they can bite me.. it's not a snow emergency route and it's wicked hahd to get cahs round town t'day.

Unfortunately.. Ben was a little afraid of the huge plow truck that kept banging around.. so we just waited at the top of the hill until they finished plowing around our minivan and then we headed down the slope. No injuries to report.

The drive home was uneventful.. there wasn't much to go wrong given that it's just about 1/2 a mile on a straight unsloped road.

Well.. that was until we got home. See.. we have a shared driveway.. it happens with a two family house. Our neighbors were already parked and appeared to have not moved for hours.. and the plows had very nicely plowed heavy mucky snow across the end of the driveway. There is enough room.. when our neighbor is parked, for us to drive past him and park up by the garage. BUT.. there's a few inches of clearance between the cars and a few inches of clearance between our car and the shrubs/house.. ice and snow pack at the end of the driveway isn't conducive to getting into the driveway without hitting either the house or the neighbor.. and since I've hit other neighbor's before (well.. their cars)... I opted to park on the street and shovel out. It's irritating to shovel when the landlord pays for a landscaping service to do snow removal.. but they are never there when you're stuck at the end of your driveway blocking traffic.

That's about it.. Ben helped me shovel.. we came upstairs and tossed our wet coats over the old steam radiators and put Tom and Jerry on.. Shiela got home a few minutes later and made a pit stop at the steak place across the street for some steak and seafood.. so the night ended on a better note..

I still don't know the status of the front bumper.