He mentioned that he would be coming in 3 hours or so and was wanting to know if the weather was okay. Well my first instinct was to say no, it is certainly not okay. Which I did, and then quickly retracted thinking that maybe the weather would get better. I told him I would call my wife, Tammy (otherwise known as The Weather Lady). Tammy assured me that the worst of the snow storm would be over by 3:00 PM that day. She also mentioned that the southern route to PA might be more dangerous because of ice and sleet as opposed to snow.
It was 2:30 PM and so I told my brother to come on to Albany and I gave him the weather report that Tammy gave me. Me and Tammy then went to the grocery store because we wanted to cook him a good home cooked dinner and we had a few things to pick up.
He made really good time and called to report that the 90 on the east side of Albany was "pure white." He said that other than the cars he sees that were mostly tossed here and there stuck in the snow or being pulled out he could barely tell there was a highway in front of him. I told him that should probably clear up by the time he gets over the bridge into Albany.
Parking
On another note I had to think about where the best place to park might be for the 70' truck since it is not like he can just park on the street. I knew that my office was a great place to park because it is an industrial park. There is plenty of parking for trucks near my office and no one would even question him parking there. However, my office was about 40 minutes to the west of us, meaning that he would have to drive more in the snow for nearly an hour. He had mentioned in our phone conversation that he only had about an hour and a half left of driving before he was required by law to park the truck.
That was when he was about 30 minutes out. Tammy and I decided that the school parking lot next door would be the best bet. So I scoped out the parking lot next door and found him the perfect spot prior to his arrival, problem was I underestimated the size of his truck and had not realized that getting the truck into that spot might be a bit difficult.
Stuck
So I decided to have him follow me when he arrived and I led him towards the school parking lot down a small side road. The idea was that we would make sort of a U-turn into the parking lot and park the truck next to the school.
Here are some photos:
Do you see those trees there at the apex of the UTURN? Yeah, well they were literally covered in thick hard ice that itself was covered by about 8 feet of snow. So we could not see them. In fact picture the entire area covered in snow with about 4 inches on the ground. Well as you can probably imagine when my bro took the turn, the underside of his trailer took down the top layer of snow and then sort of got jammed onto those trees and ice.
He was stuck. He tried backing out the same way he came in... stuck. He tried pulling forward...stuck. His wheels were spinning with no traction at all underneath. I was sick. Here I am the younger brother trying to put my older brother in a safe spot - a place where he can just park and come over and relax -- and we now had a situation that would take us hours to actually resolve.
In my head I tried to imagine what kind of tools we would need to get him out. I thought of using a shovel and just digging under the trailer to see what might be holding him in there so tightly. I imagined that a bulldozer was what we really needed to come in and just move the mountain next to his trailer. The whole time he is in his truck trying to go forward... then trying to go backward... over and again.
I prayed. God please get him out of this mess. God please don't let any cops come by. God, did I mention I wanted a plow attachment for my truck this year and Tammy said "no?" I stood there in the falling snow and prayed and tried to tap into God's wisdom for the situation, and that's when I noticed them.
Perfection Roofing to the Rescue
My brother's rig was blocking half of the traffic on Essex street, but people were able to go around and they did. But there was this truck. With a plow attachment (you know like the one I wanted for my truck?). It was just sitting there.
The truck in the image is not the one I saw, but I wanted to give you a visual. This truck was dark blue and had one of those V-type plow attachments. I decided to walk up to it to see if there was a problem, when low and behold two guys come out of the truck and meet me halfway between my bros stuck rig and their plow truck.
I filled them in on the facts of the story. "My brother is a trucker. He came here to visit me. I recommended parking here. He got stuck." These two guys tried talking my brother through to no avail. The wheels on the truck were just spinning and spinning. Next thing I knew one of the guys comes up after having gone to his truck and busts open a brand new bag of salt. The two of them begin cupping handfuls of salt together in both hands and putting it on the ground where the wheels of the truck met the pavement.
This was in an effort to melt the ice below. Moments later -- still spinning. Then the guys went to their truck for a little bit while we continued to try and think of a solution. I thought the guys had given up on us when one of them comes up to me and says, "We have a solution -- this is gonna work."
"Your brother needs to disconnect his trailer from the rig and then move his truck out of the way leaving the trailer right here." He gestures a lot with his hands like so many New Yorkers do. "Then he..." gesturing towards the guy in the plow truck "...is going to come over here and plow the shit out of this area." gesturing towards the ground. "Then your brother can come back and hook up to the trailer at an angle and push the trailer back off of the snow bank. Then he can disconnect again and then come in straight at the trailer and reconnect to move on into the parking lot or back out, or whatever the fuck he wants to do then." He smiled.
It was one of those moments where the lights just come on in your head and you think yeah, that's what I would do. I got my brother's attention by letting him know that this guy has a pretty good idea and then the guy told my brother in the exact same fashion that he told me. Forty five minutes later after plowing nearly the entire back parking lot of the school (800 sq feet) the truck was unstuck and my brother was parked and everything was okay.
These guys moved like experts, jumping in to help my brother back his truck up safely as spotters, flying through that parking lot with plow down moving the snow out of our way, and directing traffic like trained policemen. Afterwards the guys told us they knew of some better parking just a block away that they would be more than willing to scope it out for us, and so they left to go ensure it was as good as they remembered.
I looked at my brother once they were gone and said "I wonder what this is going to cost?"
"I asked them and they said 'don't worry about it'" He said.
"Really? Wow."
"Yeah I think I am going to at least give them 30 bucks, I mean that is at least something." Looking down at a handful of cash .
I thought about how I did not have any cash on me and felt a little bad because this was a short payday for us, meaning rent is due and the surplus is little. I really had only a few crumpled up dollar bills in my front pocket. As we were deliberating, a vehicle owned by the school system showed up and I asked the guy inside if it would be okay for my brother to just leave the truck there overnight and the guy said it wouldn't be a problem and to just leave a sign in the window with a phone number.
Later the guys from Perfection Roofing came back and we told them that we were just gonna leave the truck there and they agreed that it would be a good idea. We said our thank yous and our goodbyes and as they were about to leave, my brother handed the cash through the window to the guy driving. The guy responded by pushing my brother's hand and the money back at him saying "No thanks, man."
My brother stuck the cash back in his pocket and I told the guys "Thanks a lot," that I was a pastor at the church around the corner and if they ever needed anything to let me know. The driver then said "well if you guys know anyone that needs some roofing or snow removal done have 'em call us." He pointed to the sign on his truck door that said "Perfection Roofing."
Then the guys left. The rest of our evening involved a lot of eating, some beer drinking and family time. It was pretty great and my brother headed out early this morning, fed, rested and sufficiently familied. I don't quite know how to thank those guys from last night, but to me they were like angels sent by God to help. They knew exactly what to do and they did it, then they left without demanding anything else from us.
Amazing. Here is their web site. http://perfectionroofingny.com/index.html If you are in the capital region and need some roofing or snow removal done, I highly recommend these guys -- I got a good feeling that they are as committed to doing great work as they are to helping out a trucker and his brother on a snowy wet night in a bad part of town for free.
