Winter (un)Preparedness

Well, yesterday morning came with more snow and, not for lack of trying, I still did not have winter tires on my car. It was coming down hard enough that Mindy couldn't make it in again (she's working on getting winter tires for her car as well) and Jason was still in Minneapolis, due back home at about 5 in the evening. Even though I'd managed to get a 4:30 appointment to get tires, I decided to pack everyone up so that, after dropping Logan off at school, I could take Zach and Max to the tire store and hope they'd take me as a walk-in.

The drive to school went fairly uneventfully although the snow was really coming down. As I pulled into the jam-packed parking lot at Discount Tire, Max began to scream so I nursed him in the car, then wrapped myself up in my Moby Wrap carrier, got Max in it, bundled Zach and myself into jackets, hats and gloves, unloaded us all from the car, grabbed my purse and a backpack full of snacks, books and other toddler entertainment, and trudged over to the store entrance. The line as we entered was not a good sign, but we waited - and then I was told it would be a minimum 3-hour wait for tires. No way Zach could sit still that long, and there was Logan to think about. So I trudged us all back to the van and decided to head home.

Well, by this time snow had accumulated on the road up to our house and I couldn't get up the hill. Although I could have managed carrying Zach and Max up the hill, the parking on 4th street (the cross street closest to our house) was all deep in snow, with more coming down. I realized I would not be able to get Logan from school if the van got stuck, nor would I be able to keep my tire appointment, and I confess I started to freak out a bit. A call to Jason for advice quickly dissolved into tears, and then I drove to a plowed parking lot to make a few calls around to local friends. I needed a safe place to park and hang out while I figured out a plan and/or waited until I could get those tires. I got all answering machines, so I decided I'd have to get Logan from school early, walk the three kids up to the house and risk getting the van stuck. Luckily, just as I was pulling into the school lot, our friends the O'Connors called me back. They were at the Subaru dealership trading in Stephanie's 2WD SUV for an all-wheel-drive Tribeca, but dropped everything to rescue us with Ryan's Land Rover.

They reached us in about 20 minutes (I cam very proud of Zach for his patience during all of the sitting and waiting we did today), I got Logan out of school, and then they followed me back to 4th and Hawthorn. They shuttled us all up the hill to the house, and although I was content to leave the van on 4th and let it get stuck, Ryan insisted on trying to get it up to the driveway and, after about 10 minutes of trying, managed to do so.

I hugged my friends, gave my kids a nice hot lunch, called to cancel the tire appointment and started researching cars with all-wheel-drive and room for five. Today's adventure crystallized for us that, if we're going to live in this climate, at this location, and Jason's going to be traveling as frequently as he does, I need a car that can reliably get me and the kids out and back safely in snowy weather.