My Jeep was covered. I started it up so that the interior could be warm, and in the meantime brushes off as much of the snow as I could and scraped all of the glass. Loaded the skateboard dolly. I found my red toque and turned the vent from the ‘cabin’ setting (it doesn’t actually say that) to ‘foot/defrost’ (it doesn’t actually say that either). Headed for the market.
This place is too small for snowplows on residential streets. Fortunately I have 4WD. I drove slow. Man, it was coming down! And windy, too.
Ordinarily I’d be ecstatic. Snow! Skiing! But without a job, I have no insurance. Without insurance, I’m loth to risk my already-ski damaged knees. Besides, there’s no one to ski with. It’s no fun doing it alone.
I slid a couple of times, even going slow. I braked too much going over the train tracks. I found out the Jeep slides in a straight line. I let up on the brakes so the wheels could gain traction, and pumped the brakes next time I went through that intersection. It was hard to see at times.
After the market I headed home. I drove more slowly now, since the snow was deeper and there were more cars about. Not enough cars to wear ruts down to the blacktop. Crossing the little bridge over Dakota Creek, there was a snow plow coming the other way. (Blaine Road is worth it, I guess.) I saw headlights from the cars behind the snow plow reflecting neatly off the smooth, snowy surface left by the plow. Maybe it was really a Zamboni. I took note of it, and reminded myself that the roads were slicker now.
Turning eventually down my street, there was an adolescent boy with a little (three-year-old?) girl behind him. They were walking obliviously down the centre of the street. I slowed to a crawl until they got a clue.
Home again now, with my milk and potatoes. And a bowl of General Tso chicken.
Yeah, it’s, um, interesting out there. I arrived at work this morning just as they were making the decision to close the office for the day. I had some stuff that I had to do in the lab but I got to leave shortly after 11. It’s something of a mixed blessing though. One experiment that was supposed to start today got pushed back to Monday, which was going to be a really busy day for me anyway. I guess I’ll survive.
I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to make it home since the bus got stuck on a hill less than a block from my work but the driver eventually made it to the top. It was relatively smooth going from there, and thought I haven’t seen either of Victoria’s mythical two snowplows, the major streets are clear enough that they must exist.
Now I just need to wait until 6:00, so I can get some cheap entertainment by seeing how much of the newscast they devote to footage of people sliding out of control and playing bumpercars on teensy little hills, and then how long it takes after that for me to get an email from a friend back east mocking us for our inability to deal with snow.
I didn’t see any snow down here in Puyallup either. However, we had plenty of black ice yesterday, especially on Hwy 512. It caused quite a few accidents and long commutes. This is my usual route to work, however, I was sick yesterday and missed out on that hellish commute.
Oh, and Johnny , I did see Birch Bay on the news. They showed a flipped over Jeep. Just thought I should tell you so you wouldn’t feel all left out.
They’re calling for snow here for tonight, but I’ll believe when I see it. Frankly, I don’t really want to see any. I have a funeral to go tomorrow and don’t relish driving on the same roads as people who can’t seem to drive in the snow.
Well,since your post was a bit after 5:00pm yesterday and its now 4:20 pm, either he was wrong, or its going to snow like hell in the next 45 minutes.
Nary a flake today
