Parking can't really be that difficult,can it?

You know, we do live in a snowy region. We are guaranteed to have snow, and lots of it, every single winter. It is why I bought the big beast of a four wheel drive Expedition, after all! Any day it is snowing when it is time for me to leave for work; or the forecasters predict snow before the end of the day, I drive the big beast instead of my little car. Not because I think the roads will be impassable without four wheel drive (although that is often the case). No... it is so that I can park once I get to school!

You see, I am probably the last teacher to arrive. I am not full time. My contract works out to 3/4 time. I arrive between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m. The other teachers all arrive at 7:30 a.m. On normal days, this causes no problem because there is plenty of parking at my beautiful, new school. On normal days.

On snowy days, everyone guestimates where the parking stalls ought to be, with big margins for error. The cars are spaced so far apart that you could fit a 1/2 car in between them. 1/2 a car, not a whole car, of course! I am left with two options. Park across and down the street in the park, or ramp my car up on the old snow plowed into piles here and there in the parking lot eating up parking stalls!

I drive the 4X4 so that I can ramp up onto snow piles without sustaining damage. This picture is from yesterday. The snow piles have shrunk considerably. It has rained for several days, reducing the snow drastically. I could probably just about ramp the little car onto the pile at this point. However, they used to be huge! Just a week or two ago, my car looked like a commercial for rugged off-roading adventure and I was literally CLIMBING into and out of it!

You know, the people who complain about SUVs and trucks and their 'eco footprint' have probably never lived though a mountain winter. I am very grateful for the traction I get out of the four wheel drive and tonnage.