Just waiting for the snow

     Just watching the radar and waiting for the 6-10 inches to fall on us over the next two days.  Reminds me of a time when we used to prepare for this with a little more zeal.  Remember snow tires?  Well, I do, which leads me to this interesting fact you may not know about me:

I can't do squat with cars...never could

     Jackie and I were married about a year.  I had a really neat 62 or 63 Impala convertible that had about a million miles on it.  Or it could have been a 65 Chevy we bought from an ex cop.  (That will be another story.)
     Winter was coming, so I bought two mounted snow tires from Sears.
     We went to Jackie's parents' house in Rolling Meadows and I decided to drive to her grandmother's about a mile away and use her driveway to mount the snow tires.
    Her grandmother lived near Arlington Park....and for some reason, there was an event going on at the track in November.  Those details are fuzzy.  Important, but fuzzy.
     So there I was at Bana's house, putting on my new snow tires.  Took off the old tire, put on the snow tire, repeated the process on the second rear wheel and was done.
     Packed up the old tires in the trunk and backed out of the driveway.
     Now there was a lot of traffic on the road, so I had to wait a second or two to back up.
     I saw my chance, backed out, put it in forward......and the car would not move.
     I started to panic.  I put it back in reverse and backed across the street to a parking space.
     I went in and used Bana's phone to call Jackie and tell her the car was broken.  The line was busy.  She had two younger brothers and a younger sister, and one of them was on the phone.
     I decide to run back to her  house to ask for help.
     In those days I could run.
     I ran over, went in the back door and she stared at me.
     'What's wrong?" my bride asked.
     "Car....(gasp....gasp).....won't go forward....(gasp gasp).....tires are too big.  (gasp   gasp)" I managed to croak.
       "Too big?"
       "Yes....(gasp gasp)....can't go forward.......(gasp gasp) .... had to back across two lanes of traffic...(gasp gasp) .... almost got killed.    Ran here.....help."
         "Did you take off the emergency brake?" bride asks, as family looks in on this dramatic scene.
         "Shit!"
         I tear out of the house, race the nearly mile back, get into the car, take off the emergency brake and put it in gear.
        It moved forward without any problem.
        That should have been an indication not to mess with cars.  But I continued to work on them, ruining two heater coils in the process, before I learned to not touch the car in any way except to drive it.
      So when the snow comes, and we awaken tomorrow with snow covered roads, I will take comfort in the fact I don't plan to drive in the stuff.
      Then again, if  I had snow tires, maybe I would.