Stuck

Around 9 o’clock this morning, in the apartment complex one over from mine, a garbage truck died. I heard the noise of the engine giving out — some pitiful whines and squeals and then nothing. The garbage truck guys called for a tow, and they loaded the garbage truck onto the bed of a semi. The semi truck, with garbage truck securely loaded on the back, attempted to go up the road (which involves a small, but steep, hill). The semi died.

So there was a dead white semi truck with a dead garbage truck on the back. They called for a tow.

A really big red tow truck came, and hooked on to the front of the white semi truck. The new truck made it halfway up the hill, then stalled out and rolled back down. Then it tried again, halfway up, and back down. The third time, it almost made it up the hill by crossing over to the opposite lane but some oncoming traffic showed up, the truck had to brake, it lost its momentum, and they had to back the entire ensemble back down the hill again.

They are stuck. They can’t make it up the hill. The apparently can’t back out the other way, because the road curves around two corners. The whole ensemble is parked at the bottom of the hill, and nothing has happened for about half an hour now. One of the truck drivers has gone underneath the red truck to tinker with things.

If they call in a third tow truck, I’ll go out and take another picture :)