Irony, thy name is woman stuck in snowbank

In the past 24 hours, another 30 cm of snow (about a foot, for the non-metrically minded) fell, fast and furious, on our fair city. This was a true blizzard, with high winds turning the snow into a blinding sheet of white that hurt when it hit your face.
Yesterday was also, coincidentally, International Women’s Day.
In our house, this convergence of events played out as follows:
~ As Dr. T relaxed on the couch, watching a testosterone-fuelled Indiana Jones battle evil-doers and rescue the incessantly-shrieking Kate Capshaw, the doorbell rang and I raced downstairs to open the door, and find two women, obviously mother and daughter, on our front porch. The mother explained that she and her two daughters had been trying for ages to get their car out of a snowbank on our street, and had given up, and ours was the first house to answer the door. They were hoping to find something to put under their tires so they could drive out of the snow.
~ I turned around and called for Dr. T – at which point the woman’s face lit up and she exclaimed “A man! Yes, that’s what we need!”
(to clarify, she meant that he could help, not that she needed a man to put under her tires)
~ Dr. T threw on his boots and jacket, grabbed a shovel, and headed out; he was back within minutes, having successfully and manfully extricated the damsels in distress from their snowy metaphor.
~ Less than an hour later, the bell rang again. This time, a young couple were stuck in the snow in the middle of the street, and once again, Dr. T braved the elements and helped them out. This particular operation took a little longer, so the wife took refuge in our house, where we chatted for the half hour or so that it took the men to solve the problem.
~ Apparently in an attempt to add to my bemusement, the young woman told me all about her coming to Canada from Bangladesh to marry the young man based on the recommendation of her sister’s husband, who had met him once and thought he was suitable. A year and a half later, she, a physiotherapist, and her husband, an engineer, were both working at a restaurant to support themselves while they went back to school to take courses to become, respectively, a physiotherapist and an engineer.
~ We took the fact that two sets of complete strangers had now called on us to help them navigate our snowy street as a sign that our plans to drive the kids to the babysitter’s and then head out to a much-anticipated party were perhaps less than realistic. I called our erstwhile hostess and regretfully sent our regrets, he called the babysitter and did the same, then we settled in with our supper (made by me) and a nice bottle of red, and enjoyed family time (including the final scenes of the Indiana Jones flick) instead.
On the other hand, the soft, buttery dinner rolls were made by my son, so I guess that balances everything out, right?

2 Replies to “Irony, thy name is woman stuck in snowbank”

  1. In the almost 7 years that IS has been living here, I have had to dig her car out of the snow about 6 times so far; all of them since December. There’s more about that on her blog.
    And when it comes to the women in Indy’s life, think Karen Allen, not Kate Capshaw:)

  2. Ah, I miss the snow, and waking up to a winter wonderland of pure white everywhere, and the trees covered in ice, and snow forts, and snow tunnels.
    But I never had to drive in it, or get to work in it.

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