It all started at 7:57 this morning.

I took a peek outside. No cars. Over a foot of snow (44 cm to be exact).

Tentative probability of work today: 0%.

I walked downstairs to text message a few of my buddies from work. The response was expected: ‘No, I’m not going in.’

I debated and then decided to take a long, hot shower and eat breakfast.

I got a call at 10:10 to come in to work. I thought about the weather, the roads and my car. I decided to beat the odds and took the risky drive to work. In my RWD car. I got quite a few ‘Are you crazy?’ stares throughout town. I’m thinking, ‘Yes, I AM eccentric and crazy. ‘Some joe-blow-neighbour-that-I’ve-never-seen-nor-met looks at me, and then smiles and waves. I guess he felt the pain. Nevertheless, after a very slow commute, I made it to work (20 km/hr on the main roads; 40 km/hr on the highway following traffic) after an hour.

I remembered something I learned as a kid: “Slow and steady wins the race.” Well, it’s true.

Work went well for the five and a half hours I was there. My productivity level was about 90%. The other ten percent was spent deleting spam. No one else showed up for work.

I left work at 4:45 PM in order to beat rush hour traffic. That didn’t work out too well, as you’ll see.

I got into my car, turned it on, and let it warm up for a good few minutes. I put the car into reverse and gently pushed the accelerator.

A slight kick backward and then forward, followed by no movement.

I pushed the accelerator harder until the VDC clicked in. The RPM never exceeded 1500.

A slight kick backward and then forward, followed by no movement.

I pushed a button to disable VDC. I pushed the accelerator. The rear tires screeched. The RPM redlined at 7000.

No movement. I was truly stuck. In an empty parking lot, that had now turned into a skating rink. I got out to check the clearance around the car while freezing in subzero (-19C to be exact) temperatures.

I gingerly attempted to drive forward (1.5′ clearance to curb).

1. I re-enabled VDC and tapped the accelerator lightly while turning the steering to the right. The car moved.

2. I reversed again while turning the steering to the left. A little movement, but my car was still stuck!

I repeated steps 1 and 2 several times until I could safely rotate my car to the right about 90 degrees.

I drove forward and made it to the stop sign.

I got stuck in some deep snow and ice just before I was about to make a left turn. My ice scraper didn’t even help gain traction.? I was just about to put my BCAA membership to some use. A driver passing by saw me struggling and stopped to offer assistance. We worked out a solution and I was on my way home. I felt bad for the driver that stopped to help me in the frigid weather. I wanted to offer some monetary funds for his help, but he motioned me to drive off before I could. So, Mr. Good Samaritan, if you happen to read this (< 0.1% probability), I have some money for you

Seeing an abandoned 350Z on the commute home made me realize I wasn’t the only guy with RWD issues today!

One thing is for certain: I’ll be driving a FWD car to work until the weather clears up. For the record, I had relatively new high performance, all season tires installed.