another use for the common hammer

I discovered this morning after brushing a few inches of snow off the car, warming it up, and shoveling the walk and driveway that in fact that car was frozen in place. Odd indeed, but oh so true. A huge hunk of slush from yesterday had fallen off one of the front tires and frozen itself to the ground and tire thus freezing the tire to the ground. I have not dealt with this kind of nonsense in years, well never really because this is just kind of insane. I tried chipping at it with the end of the shovel but the angle was crap and I was dangerously close to scratching the Princess. So I did what anyone would do and I called my parents. They live in WI so they know about snow and ice situations. They said to let the car run for a while and surely the heat from the engine would melt the ice. They park their cars in a garage so you'll have to forgive their naivete. After applying salt and letting the car run for a long while, no change. Then I got an idea. I now keep a hammer in the car for situation like this.

I noted another Rochester oddity today that Ray told me about, but I had not seen. People shovel the snow from their driveway into the street. I don't understand why since the lady doing it across the street had to move the snow further than if she'd have made a pile at the edge of the driveway. Anybody understand why this is a good idea? Hardly anyone shovels their sidewalks here. When it snows enough, the city sends a small tractor to plow the sidewalks. If the tractor does not come, the snow stays. This is a big problem for all the dogs and dog walkers I mentioned in my last post (this includes me and Skippy Lynch).

BTW I turned in a chapter of my dissertation yesterday. I have no idea how it'll be received, but I feel a whole lot less guilty now.