Dashing Through the Snow

December 28, 2018: Driving out of my neighborhood toward the highway

for the fourth time on day two of our most recent snowstorm.

One of the perks of being retired with an empty nest is not having to go outside in the snow. Instead, you get to stay indoors and enjoy the toasty warmth of your home while the lovely white stuff floats gently down, creating a winter wonderland. At least, that's what I'd hoped.

Unfortunately, a busy life goes on despite the weather. And yesterday the driving conditions weren't exactly prime.

On the highway, heading home from Denny's. Visibility wasn't great.

(Don't worry, these pics were taken by Mark, not me, at the end of the day.)

I knew I'd have to go out twice, of course, to take Mark to work at 7:45 and pick him up again around 4:15. What I forgot was that I also needed to pick up Chris from work early, at 11:45, since his client (Chris works with disabled adults) was having foot surgery that afternoon. I'd also totally forgotten that I had my annual mammogram appointment at the hospital at 2:00.

Still on the highway, driving south toward home...

That made for a busy, stressful day. I truly don't mind running errands on any normal day, but with these weather conditions it can get pretty hairy. Cars were sliding around and sirens were sounding in the distance throughout the day. I witnessed a few near-misses, including one of my own. Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

A little further up the highway...

After I'd dropped Mark off at work, I carefully drove home on the icy streets. From the highway, the turn onto the street that leads back into my neighborhood is unusual, in that you drive up onto the street between two short stretches of curb, exactly like driving up the slanted entrance into someone's home driveway. Because of the slight change in elevation, snow accumulates especially thickly at the bottom of the slope. I've learned from twenty-six winters of turning at that particular corner that it's a great place to slide right past your turn if you don't slow to a crawl in this type of weather.

About halfway home from Denny's at this point.

So that's what I did as I approached my turn early yesterday morning. There was a truck at the corner, waiting to turn right, onto the highway, which would put him directly in front of me before I made my turn. Normally, that's no problem. And, honestly, in the almost-three years that I've owned my all-wheel-drive Traverse, I haven't experienced a single incident of slippage on icy or snow-covered roads. Still...

At my creep-along speed, with my turn signal blinking, the guy in the truck apparently felt it was safe to go ahead and make his turn in front of me. A split second later, my brakes locked and I began sliding directly toward the truck, saying out loud, "No, no, no..." I worked the steering wheel as hard as I could and, thankfully, due to my extremely slow speed, my car actually shifted just enough to miss the truck's back end. I came to a stop on the slope of the street's entrance, exactly where the truck had been sitting, waiting to make its turn.

Almost there...

It might be tempting to think it's a good thing the truck turned when it did, or I might have hit it where it sat. What many people don't understand is that, once you start to slide, it's nearly impossible to regain control until you eventually slide to a stop. If your direction changes, it's due to a rock or hole or ice formation or uneven pavement under the wheels, not the driver madly trying to steer. So it's a bit of a miracle that the car shifted into the turn, uphill. That just doesn't happen.

If the truck's driver had waited, I would have allowed my car to continue its slide forward until it came to almost a stop, when I could have reestablished control and made the next turn a little further up the highway. The biggest reason for driving slowly during a storm is the fact that sliding on ice slowly is unlikely to kill anyone or cause more than minor damage to a car. The idiots racing past other cars on the highway are the ones who get people killed.

Other than increasing my stress level, everything was fine after that. I watched other vehicles play slip-and-slide in the snow during later trips out, but I didn't witness any accidents.

And then, one mile from home, we came upon this long line of cars, stopped.

On my final outing, to bring Mark home, we got stuck behind a long line of stopped vehicles a mile from our turn. We wondered if there was an accident ahead, since an ambulance had passed us a few minutes earlier, going the opposite direction, heading toward the hospital about two miles behind us.

Eventually, as the traffic thinned a few blocks from home, we decided it was just the winter vacationers and skiers arriving in town on a Friday afternoon, looking forward to a fun weekend of snow in the White Mountains. You can see the car ahead of us is loaded with luggage and an ice chest. It's a reminder that we live in a resort town.

Finally, back on our own little street.

I love the snow. It's beautiful and it's needful, to keep our lakes and reservoirs filled and to reduce the chance of wildfires come spring. I feel blessed to actually live in an environment so beautiful that people make plans to leave their homes so they can spend weekends and vacations in the place I call home every day, winter, spring, summer, and fall.

Yes, I love the snow. Just don't ask me to drive in it.

Safely back home, at last.