Walking to church yesterday took some
serious concentration. There was a combination of cold, ice, water, wind, and
snow. The entire winter scene was presented in one day. Leroy has some grippers
that he can clip on his boots which give great traction. I wore my shorter,
better gripping boots that are not so water proof. Most of the water we saw was
under the ice. I stepped carefully on that ice hoping it would be strong enough
to hold my weight. Much of the ice in street pot holes was there because of the
salt that had been added. The temp was above zero, but by the time I got to church
my legs were quite cold.
On the way home we saw a girl trying
to get her car out of the parking spot. She was attacking the strangle hold of
ice with a pointed shovel. You can tell Leroy and I are not college students. We
were bundled to the max. This girl had no hat, gloves, or coat. Her bright red
skin testified to some cold. We tried to push her car. With the first rev of
the front wheel, water sprayed in my face and down my coat. We tried to chop
off some of the ice in the back to no avail. We pushed some more, but left in
defeat.
On the way back to church for choir
practice, she was still there. We did not offer to help again as it had not
worked before. Once again on the way home from church, we could see that her
car was gone. Amazing! However as we went past another car the guy rolled down
the window and asked if we could help. They also were having trouble with the
car stuck in water on ice. The girl, who had on boots that were water proof,
stood on the side of the car with the most water. The guy had on sneakers, no
water proof there. Leroy and I were on the side with not so much water.
After warnings to be careful, the guy started
counting one, two, three, letting us know when he was going to apply the gas. Somehow
Leroy, this girl, and I started pushing and releasing on the back of the car
with each count. The car started rocking and with the gas it moved out of the
hole.
The guy then stopped even though I yelled,
“Keep going!”
Sure enough when he tried to move
again he could not. We went through the same pushing routine and he went to the
end of the block, turned around and came back. They were so happy and grateful
for the help. As they said, “We have been trying to get out for an hour! Thank
You!”
It was good to give some successful
help. Also I think it is good for the college students to see that many of the
neighbors are ok people. Some of them consider this an unsafe place to be and
just mostly stay on campus. With all this walking and helping I had 12,000
steps. When we went back to church in the evening we actually drove.
Paula
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