DIG YOURSELF OUT
March 4th, 2006
The clock next to my bed read 4:54 am when I walked into my bedroom a few minutes ago. What an evening! I know this must sound like the beginning of a bad romance novel or murder mystery, certainly, it's nothing of the sort. I just want to tell you a little true story of stupidity, panic, and ultimately a profound event that should prove a positive metaphor for everyday of our life.
We have all done stupid things, and I can tell you that the past year and a half has been a whirlwind of stupid decisions followed by even more embarrassingly humiliating actions for me. for now I'd like to tell you about the one that happened to me this evening.
It was late Saturday night and I was taking home my wife's niece after she babysat a group of kids at a poker party John, my brother-in-law was having. Just to get this out of the way - I didn't win the tourney - and I had two drinks prior to 8:00, I left the party after midnight. In a way I wish I had been stupid and been driving home more intoxicated, at least there's a 21 step program for that kind of idiocity.
Regardless, on the way to my Wife's niece's home I saw a set of truck tracks going into a field that I knew had recently been bulldozed and all the orange trees removed (unfortunately, they suffered irreparable damage after the recent windstorm). I thought to my self, hey I bet our new truck could just cut through that field and get to the other side, that's less disctance and more fun.
So I proceded up the hill. Everything, went ok for a bit Noel was having fun and Jacob (my son) was in the back asleep just tossing about. We went on a way and I realized and said "I don't think this was such a good idea." As the truck began to slip around in the freshly graded ground, that which thanks to the recent and unnusual rains had turned to mud. Anyway, we got tossed around and I was unable to avoid a fairly large low spot in the ground, we got high centered and if I hadn't negleced to tell you this is a 2wd regular truck.
1st I have to call my father in law to come get my niece and try to convince him that I was not totally wasted. Certain he does not believe me at this point, I mean I wouldn't believe me. You have to be somewhat intoxicated to try this in the middle of the night. Next I called triple AA to see if they could help. The sent out the truck driver and he told me that because I had managed to stick the truck in exactly the middle of the lot and from any side he was unable to winch me ou because I was like 250 ft insteat of the 100 maximum they allow.
Humiliated, stressed and anxious the driver dropped me back at home leaving me with the following thoughts as options. "The only way I've ever seen that work is find someone with a good 4X4 and get towed out." He Said. That's would be fine if I knew someone with a 4X4 thus I was left with the idea of maybe hiring a tractor to get pulled out. Don't know who or where on a sunday. I mean maybe a Bobcat would do it....
Pacing in my living room I remember something the driver said about him getting stuck trying to get someone out. He said he had to dig out. "Dig out!" Why didn't I think about that... Just dig out. I mean it's only 2:00am and 40 degrees outside. Dig it out, you got yourself into this, dig yourself out. It just keeps going through my head. "Where there's a will there's a way." Get on your overalls, a shovel, some wood and walk up to the truck and dig yourself out.
You must understand where my head is at this point. First it's been a rough year and it seems like I am on a tear of self destructive decisions and behavior, this what seems to be a small disaster, just ads to my feeling of depravity. Second, I have been thinking all night while waiting for the driver of the worst case scenarios with the property owner and law enforcement. What if the property owner just says, it's on my property, it's mine? What if he could? What kind of possible other financial consequence could there be if it's deemed trespassing? Could driving through the field cause some kind of property damage and another financial drain of which I have many right now? Obviously, I can't sit around and do nothing. I got 4 hours to deal with the problem before anyone knows it's happened let's do it.
I get my overalls the shovel and some wood and start to walk up, then I realize that it really is a long walk and I need to conserve my eneregy, I also forsee possibly coming back for different tools and or supplies. Instantly, I think that a bottle jack would be a good addition to my arsenal here (proven true later). So I headed back and got to my other car and load up with stuff and drive up to the area where I entered the field.
With flashlight in hand but not on as not to alert anyone to my presence I walked the path that led me to this situation. After getting a closer look I am blown away that I ever continued driving. When I get to the truck I evaluate the situation, the front passenger tire is in a low spot and it's high centered . This pulled the rear driver tire almost off the ground. I have to first dig out the passenger side where the mud is right up to the door to get a better look. Fortunately, the recently turned over lot and the rain (both of which are contributing factors to my present situation) made digging easily. It was just soft, everywhere, even the roots left were all loose.
After digging out, I saw that bringing the jack was about the smartest idea it had. Unfortunately it did not have enough height after digging down and getting. Now a little ad for GM's truck jack. Similar to the hydraulic bottle jack that I brought with me, except with the ability to go at least twice the height. That and an extra 2X4 and I'm able to get the front wheel up high enough to get a 4X$ under the front wheel.
Still not convinced this is enough and knowing I got mud just packed into the rear tires. I went ahead and jacked up the passenger rear and put a 2X4 under it. I also spent about an hour diggin out all the dirt under the truck anywhere near the frame and making sure that all the tires had enough clearance to almost coast backwards out of the situation. Slowly, I got the truck back off and continued to take boards and put behind the tires as I went down the hill until I could simply roll back out of the field.
The entire process took about 5 hours 3 of which was digging the truck out in the dirt and mud. But at the end of the day, what seemed a hopeless situation with no immediate solution available and possible terrible outcome, was and can be solved by a will to solve it and just never stop trying. When you get stuck in the mud and you've done something stupid you got to DIG YOURSELF OUT.
The clock next to my bed read 4:54 am when I walked into my bedroom a few minutes ago. What an evening! I know this must sound like the beginning of a bad romance novel or murder mystery, certainly, it's nothing of the sort. I just want to tell you a little true story of stupidity, panic, and ultimately a profound event that should prove a positive metaphor for everyday of our life.
We have all done stupid things, and I can tell you that the past year and a half has been a whirlwind of stupid decisions followed by even more embarrassingly humiliating actions for me. for now I'd like to tell you about the one that happened to me this evening.
It was late Saturday night and I was taking home my wife's niece after she babysat a group of kids at a poker party John, my brother-in-law was having. Just to get this out of the way - I didn't win the tourney - and I had two drinks prior to 8:00, I left the party after midnight. In a way I wish I had been stupid and been driving home more intoxicated, at least there's a 21 step program for that kind of idiocity.
Regardless, on the way to my Wife's niece's home I saw a set of truck tracks going into a field that I knew had recently been bulldozed and all the orange trees removed (unfortunately, they suffered irreparable damage after the recent windstorm). I thought to my self, hey I bet our new truck could just cut through that field and get to the other side, that's less disctance and more fun.
So I proceded up the hill. Everything, went ok for a bit Noel was having fun and Jacob (my son) was in the back asleep just tossing about. We went on a way and I realized and said "I don't think this was such a good idea." As the truck began to slip around in the freshly graded ground, that which thanks to the recent and unnusual rains had turned to mud. Anyway, we got tossed around and I was unable to avoid a fairly large low spot in the ground, we got high centered and if I hadn't negleced to tell you this is a 2wd regular truck.
1st I have to call my father in law to come get my niece and try to convince him that I was not totally wasted. Certain he does not believe me at this point, I mean I wouldn't believe me. You have to be somewhat intoxicated to try this in the middle of the night. Next I called triple AA to see if they could help. The sent out the truck driver and he told me that because I had managed to stick the truck in exactly the middle of the lot and from any side he was unable to winch me ou because I was like 250 ft insteat of the 100 maximum they allow.
Humiliated, stressed and anxious the driver dropped me back at home leaving me with the following thoughts as options. "The only way I've ever seen that work is find someone with a good 4X4 and get towed out." He Said. That's would be fine if I knew someone with a 4X4 thus I was left with the idea of maybe hiring a tractor to get pulled out. Don't know who or where on a sunday. I mean maybe a Bobcat would do it....
Pacing in my living room I remember something the driver said about him getting stuck trying to get someone out. He said he had to dig out. "Dig out!" Why didn't I think about that... Just dig out. I mean it's only 2:00am and 40 degrees outside. Dig it out, you got yourself into this, dig yourself out. It just keeps going through my head. "Where there's a will there's a way." Get on your overalls, a shovel, some wood and walk up to the truck and dig yourself out.
You must understand where my head is at this point. First it's been a rough year and it seems like I am on a tear of self destructive decisions and behavior, this what seems to be a small disaster, just ads to my feeling of depravity. Second, I have been thinking all night while waiting for the driver of the worst case scenarios with the property owner and law enforcement. What if the property owner just says, it's on my property, it's mine? What if he could? What kind of possible other financial consequence could there be if it's deemed trespassing? Could driving through the field cause some kind of property damage and another financial drain of which I have many right now? Obviously, I can't sit around and do nothing. I got 4 hours to deal with the problem before anyone knows it's happened let's do it.
I get my overalls the shovel and some wood and start to walk up, then I realize that it really is a long walk and I need to conserve my eneregy, I also forsee possibly coming back for different tools and or supplies. Instantly, I think that a bottle jack would be a good addition to my arsenal here (proven true later). So I headed back and got to my other car and load up with stuff and drive up to the area where I entered the field.
With flashlight in hand but not on as not to alert anyone to my presence I walked the path that led me to this situation. After getting a closer look I am blown away that I ever continued driving. When I get to the truck I evaluate the situation, the front passenger tire is in a low spot and it's high centered . This pulled the rear driver tire almost off the ground. I have to first dig out the passenger side where the mud is right up to the door to get a better look. Fortunately, the recently turned over lot and the rain (both of which are contributing factors to my present situation) made digging easily. It was just soft, everywhere, even the roots left were all loose.
After digging out, I saw that bringing the jack was about the smartest idea it had. Unfortunately it did not have enough height after digging down and getting. Now a little ad for GM's truck jack. Similar to the hydraulic bottle jack that I brought with me, except with the ability to go at least twice the height. That and an extra 2X4 and I'm able to get the front wheel up high enough to get a 4X$ under the front wheel.
Still not convinced this is enough and knowing I got mud just packed into the rear tires. I went ahead and jacked up the passenger rear and put a 2X4 under it. I also spent about an hour diggin out all the dirt under the truck anywhere near the frame and making sure that all the tires had enough clearance to almost coast backwards out of the situation. Slowly, I got the truck back off and continued to take boards and put behind the tires as I went down the hill until I could simply roll back out of the field.
The entire process took about 5 hours 3 of which was digging the truck out in the dirt and mud. But at the end of the day, what seemed a hopeless situation with no immediate solution available and possible terrible outcome, was and can be solved by a will to solve it and just never stop trying. When you get stuck in the mud and you've done something stupid you got to DIG YOURSELF OUT.
posted by Cemseller at 9:25 AM
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