Friday, January 12, 2007
With all the weird stuff going on with the weather, I worked from home yesterday. I really wasn't comfortable with how slippery the driveway and local roads are. C took M to daycare and picked him up (something about him being far more comfortable driving on slick roads than I am).
Today I caved to C's plans of leaving for work Way Early (before daycare was opened) and planned on taking M to daycare myself. I had hoped that when C actually didn't get up until I woke him up (after daycare was open), he would volunteer to take M anyway. No such luck.
So I decide that I'm still not going in to my office but would take M to daycare - that way I could actually get work done. It couldn't be too bad, after all. C had assured my that I would have been fine yesterday and would be today too.
I cry Bullshit.
It's 31 in the garage when I leave (after this tale is over I moved the thermometer to the back patio and it registered 26).
M and I (mostly I) spent 15 minutes scraping about 1/4 inch of ice from the my car. Mind you this is ICE, not snow. Then it took another minute or two to try to pry open the car doors that have managed to freeze themselves shut. Joy.
The next step was to try to get out of the driveway. The car was stuck but a few cycles of rocking back and forth managed to escape that. Down the driveway was a little slick, as was the private gravel road. The intersection between it and the first paved road was quite slick but I managed it.
Because I had to take an uphill right next to our road, I went the opposite way about a block, made a careful u-turn and made a run for the hill. Now I wasn't going all that fast because I was trying to walk the fine line between the desire for momentum and not creaming myself, oncoming traffic or anything else if something went wrong. I had gotten a look at the hill and it looked a lot like packed ice to me.
Up the hill, up the hill, up the hill......
About half the way up the tune changed to....
Sliding down the hill, down the hill, down the hill.....
At the bottom I had zero traction and was making a marvelous backward pirouette until I had done about a 180 and was about a foot from being in the ditch.
A few deep breaths and I told M that we were just going to go home now. It was just too slick for me. He never panicked (neither did I) but it was a bit adrenaline raising.
I called daycare to let them know M wasn't coming today. Then I called C and let him have it.
New rules:
1) If I say I'm not comfortable driving with the current road conditions, do not argue with me. Your comfort level is NOT mine and I do not have nearly the same degree of experience you do.
2) If I ask you to take M to daycare because of road conditions, please just do it if at all possible. I don't make you mortgage a body part when you ask me to ferry in your place - please exercise the same courtesy.
3) Next car I get must have all wheel drive and I always get mud/snow rated tires.
Sigh - if it's not better tomorrow, I'm going to have cabin fever. It's 7:45 pm now and 25 degrees outside. Not looking much like thawing.
Today I caved to C's plans of leaving for work Way Early (before daycare was opened) and planned on taking M to daycare myself. I had hoped that when C actually didn't get up until I woke him up (after daycare was open), he would volunteer to take M anyway. No such luck.
So I decide that I'm still not going in to my office but would take M to daycare - that way I could actually get work done. It couldn't be too bad, after all. C had assured my that I would have been fine yesterday and would be today too.
I cry Bullshit.
It's 31 in the garage when I leave (after this tale is over I moved the thermometer to the back patio and it registered 26).
M and I (mostly I) spent 15 minutes scraping about 1/4 inch of ice from the my car. Mind you this is ICE, not snow. Then it took another minute or two to try to pry open the car doors that have managed to freeze themselves shut. Joy.
The next step was to try to get out of the driveway. The car was stuck but a few cycles of rocking back and forth managed to escape that. Down the driveway was a little slick, as was the private gravel road. The intersection between it and the first paved road was quite slick but I managed it.
Because I had to take an uphill right next to our road, I went the opposite way about a block, made a careful u-turn and made a run for the hill. Now I wasn't going all that fast because I was trying to walk the fine line between the desire for momentum and not creaming myself, oncoming traffic or anything else if something went wrong. I had gotten a look at the hill and it looked a lot like packed ice to me.
Up the hill, up the hill, up the hill......
About half the way up the tune changed to....
Sliding down the hill, down the hill, down the hill.....
At the bottom I had zero traction and was making a marvelous backward pirouette until I had done about a 180 and was about a foot from being in the ditch.
A few deep breaths and I told M that we were just going to go home now. It was just too slick for me. He never panicked (neither did I) but it was a bit adrenaline raising.
I called daycare to let them know M wasn't coming today. Then I called C and let him have it.
New rules:
1) If I say I'm not comfortable driving with the current road conditions, do not argue with me. Your comfort level is NOT mine and I do not have nearly the same degree of experience you do.
2) If I ask you to take M to daycare because of road conditions, please just do it if at all possible. I don't make you mortgage a body part when you ask me to ferry in your place - please exercise the same courtesy.
3) Next car I get must have all wheel drive and I always get mud/snow rated tires.
Sigh - if it's not better tomorrow, I'm going to have cabin fever. It's 7:45 pm now and 25 degrees outside. Not looking much like thawing.
posted by Maura Anderson at 7:12 PM
oy's, maura, i can relate...the ice in front of my house is about a quarter of an inch thick and damn slippery. this is western washington for god sakes, why is it 26 degrees out?
byStay safe and warm this weekend Maura! (and for crap sake stay home!)
byShe pretty much stayed home the whole weekend. safe and sound.
byI was at work Friday, made a store run on Sat, and drove into seattle Sun AM and back that evening..
Want to know the worst road I encountered the whole time? You guessed it, the one right next to our house with it's little hill (turning other way from way I went for those trips, but is on route to daycare) .. Apparently the county doesn't consider it important enough to have sanded it any time in the last three days. Bigger nastier hills have been plowed or sanded, but not the road outside the house...
She did go to work yesterday. but as it was snowing this AM when I left for work, so I expect she might stay home today also.
I hope we get to see you next week!
by