JUST MY VIEW

 

“Look at the woman from up the street scraping the snow off her car ”.
“I can’t see her from where I’m sitting” I replied, and 5 minutes pass.
“She’s digging it out now, or at least trying to”. 5 more minutes pass and glancing up again from reading her book near the front window, she said.
“Now a man is giving her a hand with a shovel.
“I told you I can’t see anyone from here, they are out of my view”.
“Then get up and have a look”.
5 more minutes pass, and looking up again from her vantage point came…. “She’s trying to drive it out now but her wheels are just spinning”.
“oh yes”, I replied still absorbed in the telly. 2 more minutes pass.
“look, he’s having a go now, why don‘t you get up to have a look“.
“I’d rather not, I‘m interested in this programme I‘m watching on TV”.
2 more minutes pass. “Well what do you think of that. He skidded all over the place getting it out, and now he’s driven it back into where it was in the first place“. ”Get up and have a look“. I grudgingly moved from my seat on the settee and took a look through our front window as she wasn’t going to give in unless I got up, but I could see no one in sight. Whoever it was must have locked the car and gone back into their house.
“You’ve missed them now, why didn’t you get up when I asked you to”.
“Because I was watching something more interesting on the telly”.

2 days later with another foot of snow on the ground, a young lad drove into our street and deciding the snow was too deep, tries a three point turn right in front of our house and got stuck. With the road now blocked to all other traffic, he got out and tried pushing it into the tracks he had made coming into the street. It wouldn’t budge. Then he did what I thought a bit dangerous to say the least. He put the car into reverse and as the wheels spun, he got out pushed it from the front. The back of the car, about 20 feet away, was now facing the pillar standing between the front drives of our next door neighbour’s house and ours. He had left the driving door open and a good job too. Suddenly the wheels began to bite and the car was heading our way.    There was nothing on the telly so I got up to watch.
He chased after it and dived in to stop the car about 8 feet away from the pillar. However, he didn’t seem to learn from what had almost happened as he put the car in forward gear and with the wheels spinning on the snow, he got out again. He had locked the wheels around, so they were now pointing at the main road that he had not long entered our street from. I thought he was being a bit optimistic as he now held the tow hitch on the rear of the car and pushed. It didn’t budge as a mound of snow was in front of the wheels. With them still spinning, he came from behind and scraped away at the snow with his foot. I thought of going out to help, but suffering from arthritis and having had a quadruple by-pass, I thought better of it. Besides, I would be of more use if I got our phone ready to call 999 if he needed an ambulance after being dragged under the car.
“Stop staring out of the window watching all the time” she said.
I was about to lend him my spade so he could clear the snow away when a neighbour, also in her sixties, went out with a brush to help. Taking it from her, he started clearing the snow away from the front wheels as they were still spinning. I thought any minute now the turning wheels are going to grip the brush and throw it out behind the car, possibly with him still holding on to it. Then the car started to move towards him. He managed to jump in and with the neighbour pushing behind, he skidded his way back onto the main road after 5 or 6 attempts.
“Come away from the window and sit down” She said again as she sat watching from her chair. The neighbour picked up her brush and went back inside as he parked his car on the clear main road and walked back into our street to use the cash-point.
I smiled as he threw his woolly hat at it and walked back to the car. The demand for money from the cash-point over the Christmas holidays had left it empty. It hadn’t been working for 2 days.  Again came…..
“Come away from the window, stop watching him and sit down”.
“I’m entitled to stand and look out of my own front window if I want to“.
I said, as only 2 days before she had been encouraging me to do just that. Should women be allowed to change their minds, causing minor arguments like the one that followed, mainly about her having such a short memory? Or is that is just another view that I‘m not allowed to have?



True events viewed from our front window during Nov-Dec 2010 after almost a week of heavy snow.