It’s never a good sign when my wife, Carla, comes busting through the bedroom door before I’ve crawled out of bed. This chilly morning would prove to be no exception. My middle daughter, Ashley, slid into the ditch down the road on her way to her job.

Here’s my tale. It reads like six ways to make something relatively simple complex!

1. Rush out the house in your pajamas because your wife says ‘hurry!’

You would think I would know better. I didn’t even have blue jeans on- just pajamas. It sounded like an emergency, and I wasn’t fully awake. Man, I was freezing before I got to my car.    

2. Ask your daughter why she ran off the road!

FREEING THE CAR. Some days a stuck car is a big deal. This image, however, isn't my daughter's car it's a stock photo to show you the problem - I didn't have my camera with me when we were 'solving' the problem. (Photo: Grebcha/Thinkstock)

“Can’t you see the ice, dad? ” Ashley said. No, I didn’t see ice, not much anyway. The roads had pretty much cleared up a few days ago. There was one tiny patch of ice. “Did your car slip on that itty bitty piece of ice?” I asked. Wrong question!

3. Turn down help from a passing motorist who actually stops

“No, we’ll be fine,” I said, my teeth chattering. He didn’t have a tow strap anyway. It never occurred to me we might be able to push it out.

4. Seriously consider driving the tractor down and pulling it out alone

Sounds like disaster in the making, right? Fortunately, I figured that out. My daughter took me home and drove our car to work. The first smart thing I did all morning was change into warmer clothes.

5. Call a friend with a new ‘used’ four-wheel drive pickup

I knew there was a reason why my friend stopped by just the week before to show me his 4-wheel drive pick-up, used but new to him. I clicked his number in my cell phone. As luck would have it, he was coming by our place in 15 minutes on his way back from town. He agreed to help.

6. Drive it out - really?

Soon after he and his employee, all bundled up in the cab, arrived, we grabbed my log chain and headed toward her car. It was only a half mile. I said I would be OK riding in the bed, rather than bothering his employee. Big mistake! It was February, not August!

Related: Five things you should NOT do when stuck in a field

Once at the car we couldn’t figure out where to hook to. I broke out the owner’s manual. Ah, my friend says, you flip out this piece on the hood and screw in this hook- if your car has one. He said it was optional, and would be in the spare tire compartment. It was so optional we didn’t have one.

“Wake up your employee, let him drive, and we’ll try pushing,” I said, still chilling from pajama exposure and a January truck thrill ride. The employee hopped in. He put it in gear. We pushed. Just like that- it came out!

Are you kidding me? Why do I make things so difficult?