Jenny

Jenny
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura

Ok. So I knew that Jenny was probably gonna stink in the snow.

I knew that.

Really I did.

I mean she is rear wheel drive but I figured, we all used to drive rear wheel drive cars, and we all still made it where we needed to go, right? How bad can it be, I only have a 7 minute drive to work.

Enter the storm on Monday.

I managed to back out of my parking spot and thanks to gravity, made it down the hill through the woods that is my driveway. Stopping at the end of the driveway to check for traffic was my first mistake, however. Even tho it is perfectly flat, it took about 30 seconds of spinning my tires to get going again. OK. Not so good. But I DID get going again. Only to fishtail as I attempted the turn onto the road. Then it was more tire spinning as I tried for second gear. Followed by more fish tailing as the tires finally grabbed. Within 100 feet of the end of my driveway, I was looking for a spot to turn around. I found my spot, a nice flat side street. Downshifting back to first, however, resulted in yet more fish tailing, and apparently 3 miles an hour was still to fast for any application of the brakes as doing so simply sent me sideways and headed for the shrubbery rather than actually stopping. Luckily, tires aren't meant to be driven sideways so Jenny eventually did come to a full and complete stop and she even left me room to actually make the turn that I was attempting in the first place. Whew. Ok... so now it's a simple half circle at the end of the side street and I'll be headed back home. Thank goodness for her incredibly tiny turning radius. Another 30 seconds of tire spinning and a quick fishtail and I was on my way back home. Luckily there was no traffic coming now that I was back at the end of my driveway and I was able to just make my turn without anymore tire spinning delays and I was on the home stretch. Yay. Now there was nothing left to do but make it UP my driveway and the only way to do that was to gun it.

Faster and faster Jenny went with me hanging on for dear life.

Up and up we climbed.

We made it up the first little hill.

Negotiated that last little curve.

Up and up we went.

Up that last little hill.

Almost...

Just a little more...

Come on baby...

Come ON...

DOH!

And that was as far as she went.

We managed to stop in the middle of the top of the driveway. You know, exactly in the middle so that no one with a vehicle that is decent in the snow could make it past us in either direction.

Just. Freakin'. Perfect.

So now I was left with 2 choices. Either back all the way back down the driveway, or get my big strapping son out of bed and have him attempt to push me the rest of the way up the drive so other people could at least get past me.

Fifteen minutes later I'm driving Jenny again praying that she doesn't just get a mind of her own and take out the kid attached to my rear bumper. Oh. Wait. Did I say "driving". I meant spinning. Sorry.

Well. We did manage to get her out of the way and I even managed to make it to work. You know, in my son's little Ford Focus that frankly didn't fishtail or spin at all.

Not. Even. Once.

So. Basically. As bad as I knew Jenny was gonna stink in the snow, if I had taken that image and multiplied it by, oh, say, TEN. I might have been in the correct ball park.

Now, tell me this.

Anyone have a winter beater for sale?