Monday, February 15, 2010

tales of tahoe

SO, a couple weeks ago, a friend called me friday morning and said..."we booked a room in the lodge at sugarbowl for tonight and tomorrow, and won't be able to make it.  would you like to take it?"

and i said, "of course! that would be great!"

unfortunately, dave was working on a project, and could not go; but suggested that i enjoy myself and go.  so i did....for the most part.


on the way there, just past auborn, i encountered a 20 mile backup due to an 8 car pile-up.  i sat on the highway for 2.5 hours, without moving.  i left the house at 2:30pm; by the time the accident cleared, it was 9pm.

by this time, it was snowing quite heavily, and i began to be a little concerned about the chain control check-point.  luckily i bought chains on the way there, but had NO idea had to put them on.  i am from florida.  i'd never even seen chains in my life!!
 good thing: there were men you could pay $30 and they'd do it for you.  bad thing: i didn't realize i needed to do that BEFORE the check point.  so, the po-po made me exit the highway, drive back 2 miles (which had taken me 2 hours to get through), get back on the highway, and then go through the chain line again!!  at this point i called dave and cried.  by the time i got through chain-control, it was 12:30am.
now with chains on, and only able to go 30mph max, and with another 30+ miles to go, i finally made it to the exit i wanted around 1:30am.  and unfortunately from here, google maps gave me the wrong directions. sigh.  i had no idea where i was going.  thank goodness for a pg&e guy working late who gave me directions after hollering at him out the window.



i finally made it to the lodge at 2am.  yeah!!  i hadn't eaten in 12 hours, or tinkled in 6 hours.  i was truly grateful that i didn't have to pull over on the side of the road, alone, and improvise!


The next day, i was both wired and exhausted; however, the skiing was awesome! 

the snow was amazing! and everything was beautiful!
i had a great time!
now i just had to make it home...

and being the silly florida girl that i am, i thought i could handle the chain removal myself. ha.

so, 20 minutes after leaving sugarbowl, i find myself on the side of highway 80, with the chains caught over the axle behind the two front wheels; laying under my car on the muddy, snowy, road alone and, well, lots of other emotions.

so, not ashamed to ask (or beg) for help, i flagged down a random blue tahoe in hopes that someone could or even would help.  fortunately for me, what must have been the 3 nephites, stepped out of the tahoe, took off my tires, removed the chains, and sent me on my way.  and from there, i was home in no time...though very gross and dirty.

moral of the story:  it's okay to go alone, just do it in a truck!!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

the handyman can

i am always complaining about the sliding doors in our house.  the reason: they don't actually slide.  it's like pushing a brick wall out of the way.

so the other day i came home from work to the smell of paint thinner in the garage.  when i opened the door to go inside, i was greeted with this:


dave had managed to take the entire door out and fix the problem.  of course moxie assisted.



now the door slides like it's on air...it's WONDERFUL!


one down, two to go.  how nice to have a handyman around.