As I feared, it was work. It seems that because of the snow, several nurses have called in and the scheduling supervisor was asking if I wanted some overtime. I politely lied about having to take my mom to the cardiologist later in the morning and he replied by saying that I was the low man on the totem pole and he therefore was mandating that I come in.
Nice... why ask then?
I told him that I would take a quick shower and head right into work. I took my time for a full shit/shower/shave and even made some coffee to take with me. I took my time knowing that I could full well blame any delays on the snow. It never crossed my mind that the snow would prove to be a burden to high to jump.
You see, yesterday we got about 16 inches of snow dumped on us. I didn't pay it any mind though as beyond the clearing of the driveway, I've never had a problem driving in the snow. Seriously. If you read my entry on my previous cars you probably remember The Black Shadow Of Death.... my 1990 Beretta GTZ. I was living in Chicago when I owned this car in 1998/9 and there was a blizzard that year that practically shut down the city. I remember it well because I went out to clean the foot or snow off my street parked car and had a neighbor laugh at me, saying that there was no way my 'little car' was going to get out.
I politely went about getting all the snow off (not all of it.. it was still snowing at the time), gave him a grin and a nod, got in the car and proceeded to pull out and drive away without any problem. That's the way I've been about driving in snow ever since I got my drivers license. It didn't matter if it was in my sport tuned Beretta or my two ton '83 Impala. I could always traverse the snow and get anywhere I wanted without giving it a second thought. 16 inches of snow with a new Focus? Bring it on.
I even brought into consideration all the problems I had driving Fiona to work after the last storm dropped six inches on us. I figured that driving through 16 inches of snow would be just slightly worse than driving through 6. Heh... the fate's looked down at me and laughed and laughed.
It's not like our driveway had the full 16 inches of snow. My brother and I had borrowed the neighbors snow blower and cleared the driveway yesterday. Twice. So there was only about 4 inches left to drive through.
A quick aside... I really hate that between the time of me buying a snow blower and me getting the snow blower delivered, the heavens opened up and dropped 22 inches on us. By the time the snow blower arives the temps will be up into the upper 30s and the snow will be melting.
Back to today's tribulations.
I took the time to start up Fiona and then brush all the snow off of her. There wasn't much as I have a carport to park under, so it only took me a few minutes to get Fiona clear. I then sat back into her, put her into drive.... and then the fun began. I didn't get more than a couple inches before the tires started to spin. The traction control nazi of course reigned in all the power leaving me just sitting there literally spinning my wheels. I reversed a few inches, then started forward again with much the same result.
It took me 10 minutes.
Not 10 minutes to get out of the driveway... no 10 minutes to get Fiona out from under her parking spot. It took me half an hour to get her to the street.
Once I got to the street I saw that I might be in some real trouble. You see I was planning on getting out to a plowed road, but no plow has been down our street yet. All I saw was the two tracks of slightly packed snow surrounded by the piles and piles of virgin snow. I briefly thought of just backing Fiona back up the driveway and call it quits, but that mean little ego within me shouted "You Have Never Let Snow Beat You Before, And You Shall Not Let It Do So NOW!!!"
So I continued my snail riding a tortoise speed crawl into the street. Then I got stuck. Not just 'keep moving back and forth and you'll eventually get out of this mess stuck'.... I mean REALLY stuck. Putting Fiona in drive made the wheels spin with no forward motion whatsoever. Putting her into reverse made the wheels spin with no rearward motion whatsoever. I couldn't even start rocking the car back and forth.
Did I give up? Hell no! I got out (praying that someone wouldn't come by and ram Fiona while she was half in and half out of the 'street'), grabbed a snow shovel and started clearing a path both in front and behind her. I then got back in and started the rocking to and fro motion that I was just sure would get me enough momentum to start driving down the street. Before I could gain more than an inch either in front or behind me, a car came.
Thankfully it stopped well before hitting me, but I was now completely blocking it's path and making no significant headway. My frustration level took the elevator all the way up to the penthouse, put on a jet pack and continued to climb higher and higher. Not only was I frustrated, I was embarrassed and a little bit humiliated. Not only was I in a fairly serious situation (blocking traffic) in a silly kid's yellow car, I had the gall to think that this car was appropriate for driving through drifts of snow like an adult sized car.
Through a lot of effort, I finally got Fiona back far enough into the driveway that the three cars could now pass by. But now I was in a real pickle... I still couldn't get her fully backed up into the driveway. By rocking her back and forth I had slid her around a bit and was trying to drive back through virgin snow on a slight incline. I also no longer had any hope of getting her down the street... I wasn't even to the bad part of the street yet. So I did what every other guy out there would do... I started rocking her back and forth again. I figured if I got it out into the street, I'd continue on down the road (slowly) and eventually get to partially cleared pavement and make my way to work. If it took three hours, then it took three hours. I'd either do that or get enough steam built up to get her back into the driveway and then I'd make the humiliating call into work.
At this point I had been in the car for nearly an hour and made it only about 60 feet. If something hadn't interceded, I probably would still be there now. Thankfully an angel in the guise of a neighbor came around with his shovel and offered to help. I got out and together we dug out a small path behind Fiona. With him in front pushing, we were able to get her back up into the driveway and out of harms way.
I profusely thanked him and went inside utterly defeated by the white powdery stuff for the first time ever.
I called into work and apologized profusely for not being able to live up to my responsibilities... I wouldn't be able to make it in to work. I promised that I would try later in the day so that I wouldn't also miss my own scheduled shift.
I did try again a few hours later, but had the same problems just getting down the driveway. I didn't even dare try to get into the street as nothing had changed there... no plow yet. I called back in and got a least a bit of relief... the supervisor who had called me understood as he himself was stuck at home, unable to traverse the wilds of his own driveway.
But this does leave me in quite the conundrum. I have a car that can't drive in the snow. I talked earlier about the problems that Fiona had with the snow, but problems in the snow is a far different problem than having the snow beat you. I can deal with the occasional problem... not being able to get fully off of my property is unacceptable.
So instead of putting my head in my hands and crying about the problem... well o.k. AFTER doing t hat for awhile... I started to try and work through it. I know that this can't be a problem of horsepower or torque. Fiona only has 160 horses under her cute bonnet and produces only 146 foot pounds of torque. The Beretta had more horses and footpounds on wider tires and could still make it. It couldn't be how low Fiona is to the ground. She IS low and does tend to plow some snow when it's over 4 inches, but again the Beretta was lower with her ground effects.
That leaves tires. It would help if the traction control let me keep a bit more power, but honestly the wheels are spinning to quickly for the electronics to be the sole culprit (and I did find a way to turn off the traction control... it doesn't help all that much when it's off). So after a quick inspection I found out that Fiona currently wears Continental ContiProContact rubber. They are tehnically an 'all season' set of tires, but from what little reading I did on them I found out that they are incredibly 'summer biased'.
In other words they are shit through the snow.
So next up I need to look at replacing them. Again, I did some research and found that Bridgestone Blizzak WS70 tires seem to be the bees knees when it comes to plowing through snow in a modern two wheel car. There ARE better winter tires to be had, but the price really starts to balloon when you get better than the Blizzaks. And sadly you don't save a lot by getting a 'lesser' snow tire unless you get a studded one (and studded winter tires are illegal where I live).
While reading up on snow tires, I also found out that there was advantages to having them on smaller wheels. Or more precisely narrower wheels. You get more of the cars weight on a smaller area and are able to make better traction. Plus having your winter tires on a seperate set of wheels makes changing back to summer or all season tires far less expensive and far more easier. And trust me, you don't want to have winter tires on your car when you don't need them... they wear away FAR faster than regular all season rubber when driven on even moderately warm pavement. They make more noise and don't offer as good dry warm pavement grip as well. So if you get winter tires on a seperate set of wheels it's a simple procedure to change them out twice a year yourself or a very inexpensive thing for a tire shop to do for you (plus they can ensure the alignment is still good on the new wheels).
But getting a new set of wheels and tires isn't cheap. I have about $500 I could throw at this problem right now. I could probably borrow another $200... but a new set of decent wheels, a set of Blizzaks, having them mounted and aligned, and a new set of Tire pressure monitor sensors would cost me about $1200 at the local discount tire shop (I'm comparing both Discount Tire and Belle Tire as they both have shops here in town). I could probably save some by going without the sensors, but then the car will cry at me about the tires being low for five or so minutes each time I start her up.
Even though I would get better grip by going down to 15 or 16 inch wheels and winter tires, I figured I'd still get a significant increase in performance if I just stayed with the 17s. Sure, it would cost more each time I have to change them back to the summer rubber, but I could always get new 17 inch wheels then and make it easy for future seasonal changes. But price is still a factor as the 17 inch tires are significantly more expensive. A set of four 17s would cost me about $700 locally. Cheaper if I bough them online, but with shipping that cost savings isn't really all that much. And that still doesn't include mounting them.
So at the moment, neither option is available to me. Even if I could afford it, and they did have it in town to install today, I still couldn't get to the shop. I'm writing this up at 4:30pm and there still hasn't been a plow down my road.
So for the moment I'm stuck at home. I'll reconsider this in a couple weeks as my next check will include all the holiday/overtime from working on Christmas and New Years eves and days.
Hopefully a plow will come by either tonight or early tomorrow.... otherwise I'll have to call in again tomorrow. Calling in, however, doesn't mean not getting paid. I'm still not sure how I feel about this, but it seems to have any time away from work, I need to use personal time. So while I sit here and cry about the snow I'm getting paid... and uselessly burning up my vacation day(s).
I feel your pain on this one. Having had two wheel drive small cars all my life I know that snow pretty much buggers any chance of getting anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI have tried the digging small channels to get going tactic too, I find it works well with accurate enough channels (which can be rather complicated) but then I have never had to factor in traction control and thus just let the normal revs take me into the start of any drive. I used to live at the bottom of rather a steep hill, so getting out in snow and ice was always fun. But, having said that, my crappy Skoda (Alfie) managed it with just taking my foot off the brake and the clutch and letting the engine do the work, shifting into first and letting it stay there. Sometimes a few thousand extra revs helped, but mostly it was the engine. My Nissan Micra (Scully) was similar, but needed more weight from my foot in first. Finally, I have a large version of the Ford Focus and it, being diesel, seems more of a beast with snow. Admittedly the worst Vanessa has had to deal with was four inches but that was on a decline of about 25%... Anyway, I find that manual transmissions beat automatic every time on stuff like this as you can manually disengage the clutch and find the right rev point, often higher than the usual change gear point, and then the wheels find traction.
Oh, one other thing that I'm sure you know already, I found that rubbing salt into the tires (rough rock salt) has the dual effect of melting any ice (and thus aiding traction) and acting as kind of winter studs until the car gets going enough to rely on your own driving and the insane power of momentum.
And it sucks that you don't get 'snow time' - even if it's not paid - that doesn't eat into your vacation time. I do wonder about your employment laws sometimes!
Yeah, the traction control is a real pain. Lita had traction control, but it let the wheels spin quite a bit more which allowed momentum to carry you a bit further. A manual tranny is certainly a benefit as starting out in second gear can sometimes be the difference between success and failure. And now that you mention it... The Black Shadow Of Death was a manual. That's how I beat that blizzard in the Windy City.
DeleteActually I've never heard of the rock salt on the tires trick and will give that a try next time. I'm not sure it would have really worked for melting though the other day as the temps were 40 degrees below freezing. It's my understanding that salt will only melt snow/ice when it's about 20 degrees below freezing. But the traction alone might be enough to get me over the hump.
I'm not sure that it's our employment laws that are the problem. It's just the way the state employment contract works. They demand that you 'work' 40 hours a week (or at least 80 hours a pay period). I don't get it, but I've never worked for the state before or had a real job with a corporation this large.
I hear your pain. We had that foot of snow last week and the GF called out as there was no way to get out .. had to take a vacation day to do so, and last night she got a memo stating you are to get into work as soon as you can no matter how bad the weather or you will be fired! And this is for some stupid little medical lab that isn't essential in any way!
ReplyDeleteI had some vacation time left that I used so I didn't have to go in, and I have logmein so I can work from home if I needed to, but yeah, it can suck, especially since I don't trust the Toyota I am driving now. I miss the 4x4's I've been driving the last 20 years, but I can't even afford an old jeep at this point :(
I've never considered a 4x4 or even AWD before... but you can bet I'll be thinking about it on my next car purchase. The big problem there is that 4x4 feature will directly oppose the fuel efficiency feature that I also highly desire. We'll see (eventually) how well snow tires work. Hopefully they'll act as a stopgap between a 4x4 and a small front wheel drive hatchback!
DeleteWell, a snow plow actually got to our street yesterday morning. I left myself an extra hour of driving time and took off for work. While I didn't need all the extra time (I ended up waiting in the parking lot for 45 minutes), it was an awful drive. Fiona slipped and slid on the packed snow. Fiona slipped and slid on the deep unpacked snow. Fiona slipped and slid on the ice. There were only a scant few patches of bare pavement between home and work.
ReplyDeleteThe drive home was worse that night. The conditions weren't any worse, but the lack of sight ensured that every change in condition was a surprise. I was white knuckling the steering wheel the entire way and actually had hand cramps when I finally backed Fiona into her parking spot. The drive into work today should be about the same, but the temps should rise during the day, so hopefully the salt will melt some of the more hideously icy areas.
I also found out that no one at work was surprised or upset that I couldnt' get in. I was with the majority of people that couldn't traverse the snow. Not only did the scheduling supervisor not make it in, neither did my supervisor or my coworker for the day. The only people that could staff the clinics were those that lived a few miles from the prison. I still had to use personal time for the missed hours, but at least no one was upset at my absence.
It's not worth another post all on its own, so I'll just add this as a comment here. I got Fiona stuck again. I had to leave for work a bit early yesterday as there was a nurses meeting about the 12 hour schedules. Walking out to my car I noted that the road was far clearer than it was the night before... and that should have been my cue that there were going to be problems. You see it wasn't warm enough to melt the snow, which means that a snow plow must have once again hit our street. And what to snow plows do? They push all that snow up at the end of the driveway.
ReplyDeleteFor some odd reason that thought didn't hit me. Probably because going through a bit of snow at the end of the driveway has never stopped me. Sure it's been a problem, but I've always been able to push through it. As I approached the end of the driveway I had to slow down and stop for oncoming traffic. Just as I was slowing to a stop I felt the front tires get mired into the snow. My prayers went unanswered as once the traffic cleared and I gingerly stepped on the gas only to have my wheels spin uselessly.
The snow pile from the plow was about 5 inches deep. Not only were the tires stuck, I had also plowed through with the low ground clearance. And this snow was very wet and very heavy. I spent a good 15 mintues trying to get Fiona either forward into the tantalizingly clear street or back into the momentum building clear driveway, but no... that didn't happen.
I shoveled. I rocked Fiona back and forth. I screamed and cried. I didn't move an inch. Eventually my brother got home from his work and together we cleared enough snow away to push Fiona back into the driveway which allowed us to clear out a path in front and for her to press through and onto the street.
I didn't make the meeting which started a half hour before my shift. I didn't make the beginning of my shift. I was late. The temps are currently in the low 40s (yes, at 8AM!) and there is the possibilities that there will be no more heavy snowfalls this season, but that doesn't stop my plans of getting some sort of snowtire and wheel combination on my next paycheck. Even if I can't afford the best (the Blizzaks), there is much to gain just from having tires with ANY grip to them.
That's a big ouch!
DeleteBeen there with the crying stuck thing too. Never had such low temps, but the ice! Oh, the ice!
Good luck getting decent grip tyres. Also, ack, you're right about salt not working at all at that low temperature. Worst I've ever had to deal with was 12 below (celsius) so you have my sympathies. Yay for brothers?