Of Snow and Driving Slowly

It's beautiful outside. We're on day 3 of a storm that has brought snow, ice and freezing temperatures to the island and to most of Western Washington. The island has slowed to a crawl, school is closed and there are very few people out on the road. Basic stores are open but for the most part islanders are hunkering down and feeding their woodstoves and farm animals and making sure pipes don't freeze. A winter storm can be very relaxing for some and busy for others depending on how you are situated and what you have on the agenda.

I for the most part have been pretty busy. As the storm was at it's height on Sunday I drove from the southend of the island up to the north to pick up my daughter. She had borrowed my beater truck the night before to spend the night at a friends house. As the snow gathered momentum and depth I knew there was no way she could drive back home safely without a major clamity of some sort. Bald tires, sketchy brakes and an ineperienced snow driver wasn't a good combo for the 10 mile drive home. So I went to fetch her.

My Toyota 4 runner is much hardier and equipped with 4 wheel drive, even so it was an adventure to blaze new trails down the island in the snowy whiteout. Home safe, mission accomplished I gathered some wood to stoke the stove for the night.

I only had a couple hours till I was scheduled for my home health care job for my Sunday overnight. I was a little trepadtious. Snow was still falling and it was a bit of a workout heading down island earlier. Well that trepadation was well heeded as I headed out I started slipping and sliding thru the first curve even with 4 wheel drive. The corner past Islandale is notorious as it has quite a bit of slope that slants towards a very big ditch. I have landed in that ditch before in lesser conditions and it wasn't fun!

I guess that there are some things I have learned as I have gotten older and one of those is perhaps to not push my luck any further than I should and remember lessons learned. This is not always something I remember to do. Perhaps this is also because of advanced age, but because I have landed in that ditch before...I TURNED BACK.

So I never made it to my job that night but I was home and without incident. That is surely worth something. I however worked the next two nights. Leaving early before dark and before freezing temps, driving slowly through the snow.