Of course, we always carried one of these in the cars when we lived in the Great White North:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ec0a/?pfm=_featured_ec0a_4 Dan On Jan 17, 2013, at 6:53 PM, Dan Penoff wrote: > Two words: Snow blower? > > I had one in Wisconsin that could throw snow into the next county. > > Yeah, it sucks to have to come home from work, all ready to put your feet up > and take it easy, and put the snowmobile suit or Carharts on to go out and > run the snow blower, but it's got to be done or you'll have a frozen mess the > next day in many cases. > > Funny car story: > > When we lived in Wisconsin our kids were small, like 1 and 5. Mom wanted a > minivan something awful and we really couldn't afford the outrageously > expensive and popular Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler models of the time. I had > driven a Ford Aerostar on a couple of jobs when traveling, and really liked > it. No reason to pay attention to the fact that it was rear wheel drive, the > kiss of death in snow country for such vehicles. Right. So we get a really > nice used Aerostar. > > So I come home from work one day, stopping to pick up the kids at day care as > I did every evening. My oldest son promptly crawls into the car seat in the > back of my 1979 300TD and pipes up, "Mom says if you want a van you can get > your own damn van!" > > Hmm. Not a good sign. > > I pull up to our house and see what appears to be the remains of a small > nuclear device with tires having detonated in our front yard. Mind you, I > said front yard, NOT driveway. > > Turns out, Mom would never back into the garage so she could just drive out > in the morning. Call me sexist, but I have yet to find a time when I could > get her to back a car into the garage. Anyway, think about backing a very > light in the rear minivan onto a solid sheet of ice, having to make an > immediate 90 degree turn to head down the driveway to the street. > > Slow going? Why give it more gas, of course! Get those wheels spying to the > point of tire failure, if you like. Does the van move backwards in a > straight line under these conditions? Of course not. It yaws to one side, > sliding off of the pavement into the frozen lawn. > > OK, now we're spinning tires in the front lawn and going nowhere. So spin > some more! Toss cups of kitty litter under the tires, right? Spin some > more!! Move forward - no - back - no- forward! Whatever!!!! > > So you can easily picture this light in the rear Ford Aerostar doing > doughnuts in the snow without gaining any sort of traction onto the driveway > or street. > > At some point she was able to extricate the van and move on, no doubt without > a fair amount of expletives and colorful language, which, without a doubt, > was the source of my cherubic son spouting out Mom's constructive criticism > of my vehicular choices. > > Two weeks later she had a Chevy S10 4 door 4x4. It was in the best interest > of my safety and that of my lawn. > > Dan > > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
