Twenty five minutes earlier I had misjudged the ground clearance of my car in an attempt to drive over a block of ice/snow that was between me and a parking space that was partially dug out on my street (the joys of city living in the winter). At first glance it looked like my front tires spinning hopelessly on the ice were the issue. A quick look under the car told us differently. The front axle was wedged in an "iceberg" and my tires were actually lifted off the ground, and resting on at least an inch of ice. For a few minutes Rachael and I stood on the street laughing about my predicament. It was around that moment when Patrick arrived. His lunch plans with Rachael were put on hold as he was immediately put to work.
Rachael, Patrick and I took turns chipping away at the ice with a plastic shovel for nearly a half an hour before the man with the book approached us and offered his help. While I had already tried to put the car into reverse to back off the ice, he insisted I try again. When he saw both front tires spinning on the ice he suggested putting my floor mats behind the tires so I could gain traction. We tried to explain to him that the tires weren't the main issue, but he did not listen. After the floor mat experiment failed with me behind the wheel, he decided to try moving my car himself. I don't know if he thought I didn't know how to put the car in reverse and step on the gas or what, but the line about not trying to steal my car was amusing.
About five minutes after the man
with the book gave up, a cab driver pulled over and grabbed some type of metal
ice chipper/hoe out of his trunk and told us to dig the tire out. Once again,
nobody wanted to listen to the people who had actually looked under the car. We
explained that the tire wasn't the issue, but he insisted. Once one tire was
free, he grabbed his tool, put it in the trunk, told us we would be good to go, and drove off. I got in my car,
put it in reverse, and stepped on the gas. One tire was still spinning on ice,
and the other was just spinning in the air because as I previously mentioned my car
was perched on a block of ice. As you can see in the picture to the left, my
tire wasn't even touching the pavement after we dug the snow out from under it.
The cab driver was a huge help to us though because suddenly Patrick remembered the metal shovel he had for gardening and he went home (about 4 blocks from my place) and returned with it. We all took turns carefully chipping away at the ice, without damaging the undercarriage of my car and eventually freed my car from the clutches of the ice. The metal shovel was more efficient than the plastic one that I found in the storage area of my building. It took us about an hour and a half to free my car. It was 27 degrees out, and nobody was wearing gloves. We made some jokes about what appeared to be bloody snow under my car once it had been moved. It wasn't until we were almost inside when I realized that both Patrick and my knuckles were the source of the bloody snow.
At this point you are probably wondering what this has to do with the 2014 Olympics. I can answer that for you. It has nothing to do with the Olympics. The Olympics ended about two weeks ago and the last time I checked chipping away at blocks of ice under a car, and exfoliating your numb hands on pavement were not on the list of events.
Last year I was so miserable in the winter that I couldn't even stand to be outside. You can refresh your memory about that here and here. This year while the cold damp weather still caused increased joint and muscular issues, I was in a much better mood and a lot more active. After being outside in the freezing weather shoveling/picking away at ice it took me over a week to return to my regular level of discomfort. On one hand I am thrilled to report the improvement in my mood and level of activity over the past year, but on the other hand it is very discouraging because I want nothing more than to feel better and to be able to start training for triathlons again and I am a long way off from being able to do that seeing how I just mentioned that it took me over a week to return to my regular level of discomfort after shoveling.
On February 20th, 2014 Angeli VanLaanen competed in the half pipe at the Sochi Olympics. Who is Angeli VanLaanen you ask? Truth be told, I had no idea who she was until about a month and a half ago. She is an extremely talented freeskier who in 2009 had to take 3 years off from skiing in the prime of her career while she battled Lyme disease. Click here and here for articles about Angeli. And when you have a spare half an hour, check out this video about her Lyme journey.
Angeli's Lyme disease has been in remission for two years. She was able to overcome the mental and physical beating that Lyme disease unleashes on your being and make it back to a level of competition that enabled her to qualify to represent the USA at the Olympics. She made it all the way to the finals in the half pipe and while she didn't finish with enough points for a medal, she is a winner in my book. Her story is very inspiring to me. I know what she had to push through during her Lyme treatment, and I also have an idea about the kind of changes she had to make in her everyday life to get to the point where her body could handle this sort of competition again. She is also very involved in Lyme advocacy work and being in the spotlight at the Olympics gave her a great opportunity to share her story while educating the masses about Lyme disease. I look forward to hearing more great things about her in the future.
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