Missed it by that much!

Steve will quickly and easily admit that he's not much good in reverse gear¹. He hates backing up or backing in or any of that stuff. So it's no surprise that we wound up with a house that requires that you turn slightly in one direction to exit the driveway and in another to actually head down the street.

In our current wintry conditions, missing the end of the driveway is pretty easy and usually easily overcome². One morning Steve left for work in a bit of a hurry and somehow managed to not turn quite sharply enough. As a result, he missed the end of the driveway by that much³. All things being equal, he of course got stuck⁴.

He didn't panic, he put the car in drive and slowly pushed down on the pedal.
Nothing.
He put it in reverse.
Nothing.
Drive again, with a little more gas.
Nothing.
A lot more gas.
Still nothing.
He got out and rearranged the bags of dirt in the back.
No luck.

Finally he got out of the car, leaving it in reverse and began to rock it back and forth⁵. After a few tries he managed to get a range of motion of about two feet. Getting back in the car quickly for fear it might drive off without him⁶, he closed the door and managed to get underway.

Luckily there was no more backing up on the way to work.

1. Some say he's not much good in drive either, but he's not one of them.
2. As long as you stomp on the gas and don't stop moving, you're fine.
3. Which is to say, one car-width, ie, his right tires were to the left of where his left tires should have been and he wasn't on the driveway at all.
4. Could there be anything more embarassing than being stuck in your own driveway?
5. Yes, there are times when the mass does work in your favor.
6. Honest Mom, that wasn't going to happen, at no time was the car moving backwards without me pushing it.

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