Try, Try Again

I don’t usually pay attention to what my neighbors are doing, but today I couldn’t help myself. I was standing in the kitchen and just glanced out the window which faces the main road in front of the house. It also faces, obviously, the side street that’s directly across from us. Our neighbors, who live at the end of that side street, have a driveway like ours – it’s extremely long and runs uphill, but theirs curves to their garage.

Just as I got to the window I happened to notice that neighbor sitting in his SUV at the end of his driveway; the front of the truck was in the street and the rear was just into the end of the driveway. Suddenly he started reversing backwards up the driveway. That’s actually what caught my attention. See, he didn’t really shovel his driveway the other day after the snow storm. Apparently he spread sand on it and, after more snow had accumulated, he decided to shovel. The damage was done, though, because what was left was a thick layer of compressed, icy, and sanded snow stuck to the surface.

Anyway, dude backs up the driveway and, just as he reaches the peak of it, his tires start to spin – it’s a front-wheel-drive vehicle. He cuts the wheel but it doesn’t do any good. So he pulls forward again to the bottom of the driveway stopping just beyond the end of the driveway – exactly where he started from the first time. He backs up again, hits that same spot at the peak and spins his tires. He cuts the wheel, again, to no avail. So, again, he pulls all the way down the driveway stopping in the exact same spot.

My first thought was, “Dude, maybe if you pulled further into the street and got a longer running start you’d actually make it all the way to the top.” I’m guessing he couldn’t read my mind because he repeated exactly what he’d already done twice; and he continued doing it another five times after that. Eight times this dude tried backing his SUV up his driveway only to have it spin and slide when he reached the peak. Eight times…He didn’t try moving farther into the street to get a better run at it, he didn’t try moving over in the driveway to find a spot with better traction; he didn’t do anything any differently than he’d already done. I found it very interesting; which probably explains why I couldn’t stop watching.

Finally, he pulls to the end of the driveway and out to the main road. I figured he was just giving up and going out somewhere. Nope. He pulls a turn-around in the middle of the road, heads up his driveway, forward this time, and makes it all the way up to his garage. Success at last and I could get back to what I was doing. What was really funny was that I wasn’t even laughing at the guy; I was only mildly amused at the entire scene. I was just really curious to see what he would do to get up the driveway, and I was more curious to know what he was thinking that he kept repeating the exact same scenario when it wasn’t working. Even kids will try something different when they do something and it doesn’t work. My neighbor is an adult; you’d think he knows better. I don’t know, I just thought it was interesting and wanted to share. Tomorrow I’ll have something more interesting to discuss.

Until next time…peace to all.