The Battle with the Tempo Car Shelter

Ironically, my very first post has nothing to do with being a mom at home. Though it has everything to do with all those big outside-the-house chores one must do on one's own when one's husband is not around.

We have a Tempo car shelter in our driveway - it looks like a big white tent and they're all the rage in Québec. When I stepped outside my door this morning to take my daughter to the neighbor's where she spends half-days (and I get a break to write - or deal with house chores), there was a full-blown storm and I was up to my knees in snow. The front flaps to the car shelter were opened (indeed they were never closed all winter - this morning was our first real snowstorm), and I noticed a snow-drift just behind the car. I dropped my daughter off, returned to the shelter, and began shovelling.

So far so good - until I got the snow out and tried to close the flaps. They were iced over and stuck to the metal frames; I had to yank hard to de-crust them. The result was that it loosened the snow that had built up on top of the shelter. I didn't realize this right away, however, as I was working from inside the "tent". I finally managed to pull the flaps loose, and proceeded to glide them down the metal bars where they would join in the middle and I would be able to close them with a series of hooks tied at the end of elastic bands.

Right. It's never that easy. The flaps wouldn't join - there was at least a foot-long gap between them. Now what?

I stepped out from under the shelter and began pulling with all my might. Snow was gathering quickly in my jacket's hood and on the back of my neck. My struggling yielded little results, and I decided to take the lazy route and tie the flaps down by inserting the metal hooks in the holes for the elastic bands - which is not where they are supposed to go but what the heck. I was freezing, it was windy, and I was fighting with two heavy flaps that were flying like sails in the wind. I pulled the upper metal hook to the nearest hole, looking up as I did so, gave it a good yank - and received a mouthful of snow as the buildup on the roof of the shelter finally gave way. Sputtering and spewing, I cursed out loud (thank goodness there were no kids around - lucky for me the schools were closed). After I shook the snow out of my hair, I proceeded to the remaining hooks.

Once I was done, I surveyed my work, and finally walked into the house, two good inches of snow stuck under my boots, and swore not to step foot outside for the rest of the day. Except to pick up my daughter at the neighbor's, of course.