Mrs. Hillbilly Mom Is Still In The Loop

Surprisingly, snow days are not as much fun when you're not actually working!

Oh, I got the call. The call informing teachers from Newmentia that due to inclement weather, school would not be in session. Actually, I got TWO calls! One on the faculty shout-out app, and the other because I was previously a student's mother. Oh, I could get off those lists if I wanted to. But I don't really care. I was snug in bed when they came in at 5:30 a.m. No skin off my nose.

When I saw the forecast, but mainly when I saw the county road crews spraying the center turn lane yesterday (who knows why, since people around Hillmomba DON'T USE THEM CORRECTLY) over by Terrible Cuts (where I was getting shorn) and the Chinese restaurant (where my best ol' ex-teaching buddy Mabel tried to stand us up one in-service day)...I offered T-Hoe to Farmer H.

THAT'S RIGHT! Selfless Mrs. Hillbilly Mom offered her Sweet Baboo the only working 4WD vehicle among the 7 we pay insurance on. Technically, the Acadia, the #1 Son's Mariner, and The Pony's Rogue are ALL WHEEL DRIVE. That's not 4WD in Mrs. HM's book. You can't gear them down for heavy-duty traction.

Anyhoo...we paid my sister the ex-mayor's wife an exorbitant amount for my mom's 2002 TrailBlazer for the specific purpose of Farmer H having a good 4WD vehicle to drive to work. Even though he has the Ford F250 Club Cab Long Bed, which IS 4WD, a truck with nothing in the back is not as good as a regular car with weight evenly distributed throughout all four wheels. He has taken it before, and had slippage.

Funny thing about Mom's TrailBlazer. Last time Farmer H tried to use the 4WD, it was stuck. So he had some work done on his truck, and then took in the TrailBlazer, and come to find out...the 4WD is shot. Some gear thingy is stripped. It would cost $900 for just the part. Farmer H may spend $1000 on shoe inserts at The Good Feet Store because he is too embarrassed to say no after he didn't ask about the price first...but he won't pay $900 for a part to make his current vehicle's 4WD work.

"I really feel bad. All those times we told your mom to just put her car in 4WD so she could get out of her driveway. She tried to say that car wouldn't make it. She must have spent WEEKS at home because she said she couldn't get out. And all that time she was right! I really feel bad."

"I know. Sis and I told her that, too. 'MOM! What are you saving it for? Just put it in 4WD! Leave it in 4WD during the winter. PARK it in 4WD so it's ready.' But she'd be out there dumping ashes and poking through the ice with a broom handle. I feel bad, too. At least I went to pick her up and take her to the store. Even if she WOULDN'T let me pull in the driveway."

Yes. Selfless Mrs. HM let Farmer H take T-Hoe to work. While she stayed home, even eschewing her daily 44 oz Diet Coke! The wind chill was 12 degrees, people! It wasn't worth driving A-Cad to town, not knowing how his AWD would handle. I DID, however, walk up the driveway with a black plastic trash bag flung across my back like a female sore-kneed Santa, to put trash in the dumpster, which is going to be a day late being emptied.

Farmer H said the back roads are slick. He saw three cars off between the Mansion and the highway this morning, one of them being a trash truck getting winched out.

This evening, I got THE TEXT again. No school tomorrow at Newmentia. Sweet four-day weekend for my former work brethren and sistren. I, on the other hand, hope to get out tomorrow for a 44 oz Diet Coke.