So I get up at 6AM and start my truck up around 6:30, defroster on full blast. I head out at 7:00 to see the melting progress and......
….still a 1/4-1/2" thick sheet of ice.
So I bust through it with my scraper/snow brush, luckily the underside of the ice sheet has been a little melted and the ice "flakes" away.
Cool.
On the last smack, the scraper breaks off of my brush. Great.
I’m pissed off about that, so I break concentration from the ice, and look around for a second. That’s when reality hits me... I see the 6-8" deep tire tracks through the streets of my neighborhood. Only one car has passed by, I'll be damned if had to have some ground clearance! Obviously a truck.
I look at my truck, then at the street, and realize that the situation is much more dangerous than it looks. I call my boss to see what the deal is with work. He tells me that he is undecided, and that it's up to my personal discretion to go in if I think it's safe. So I sit there for a few min and ponder the situation. Okay, I'll be a good employee and go in. Hell, I've driven in worse - I think - so this should be no problem.
I get out onto the streets and realize immediately how bad of a situation this is when my truck has difficulty making its own tracks in the snow/ice.
I make it out on Alton-Darby road, 4WD blazing at an astounding 10mph, when it happens. I lose control of a 3/4 ton missile that launches itself sideways into a ditch. Sweet.
I hop out of the truck to make sure there is no damage; it's a corn field, sweet. Looking around, I know there is no fuckin' way I'm getting up the embankment I just slid down. So I put the truck into 4WD Low, and plow my way through the middle of the field to a flat spot where I can pull out of it.
Then I go the fuck home.
I just pulled into my driveway, ego bruised a little. When not 10 seconds later a minivan careens by and SLAMS into the car parked on the other side of my street in front of my house. Yikes!
I'm going to try and describe the scene in front of my house right now, since my camera is broken. Shortly after the van slammed the car (the van is resting where it stopped) a 2WD Pathfinder gets stuck in the MIDDLE of the T in the streets in front of my house. From one direction, is a stuck Explorer and F150 who are less than a foot from each other trying to get unstuck. I expect them to hit each other soon. On another direction is another minivan who was trying to drive through, but being blocked by the Pathfinder, had to put it in reverse and try to go BACKWARDS down the street. They are stuck now too, about 30 feet from the Pathfinder. An Accord is now stuck behind the second Minivan.
Holy fuck.
The moral of the story? DON'T GO THE FUCK OUTSIDE TODAY!