My old commute was a typical, dull, flat, traffic-packed, eye-bleeding morning scenario. My new commute however, is a lovely drive over beautiful, rolling terrain. During the summer, the birds are out, the village bustles, and there's a lot to notice on the way in to work. I now see that during the winter, there's just as much beauty to behold. Today's drive in was a quiet, deliberate mosey through a misty, snow swept wilderness. Now and again, you'd see a faint light, joined by a partner grow til out of the mist, a car heading the other direction would appear. You could catch a glimpse of patches of the road you were traveling, but only with a good eye and a little luck. For the most part, you just followed the deep tracks in front of you, taking in the mysterious, and somewhat daunting beauty while remaining vigilant for traffic ahead which appeared and vanished as the blustery white vail advanced and receded with the wind.
The road was slick, and my tires are getting old. For the most part, it just took a little convincing to get my sporty red focus to start moving (not unlike myself when the alarm went off at 6:30am), however, the light at the top of a particularly steep one of those rolling hills proved... difficult.
Traffic stopped for the light. So did I.
Traffic waited for the intersection to clear. So did I.
Traffic advanced when the light turned green. I... did not.
I teased the accelerator, attempting to go from stopped to at least a crawl, but to no avail. The front tires would spin, or stop, but no progress was to be made.
Moments felt like minutes as the line of angry traffic behind me began to realize their chance at the fleeting green ahead was getting slimmer and slimmer...
Fortunately, I wasn't going backwards. I opened my door and put a foot out....
With one foot on the gas, a hand on the door, and a hand on the wheel, I used my left foot to PUUUSH against the ridiculously slick incline. Heeaaave... heeeeave... heee.. AHA! It was working! Feathering the gas and pushing the car brought me to 1 mph... 2... 5... YES!!! I WAS MOVING AGAIN!
Me and the 5 cars closest behind me made it through the light. Phew!
For the rest of the drive, I gave myself a LOT of space between myself and the car ahead of me before hills, rushing up the incline to avoid the previous situation. A quick visit to TireRack.com and a grand later, both my Focus and Corolla will be sporting the automotive equivalent of some fancy new Gore-Tex boots for the rest of the season. :)
How has the weather been treating you?
4 comments:
My transportation needs some new Gore-Tex boots, but I haven't yet talked myself into the $300 they'd cost.
It's been snowing pretty much non-stop since early November, and we have over 4 feet of accumulation, even taking into account reduction from the several warmish melty days we've had. So now there's a foot of sheet ice under slush on all the main sidewalks, and the sidestreets are still 4 feet deep in snow with slidey tire tracks weaving through them. Ironically, the places that are usually muddy shortcuts are now firmly packed snow and are quite nice paths. (I do love snow, but I despise slush.)
I fell down more times last week than the last two winters combined, so it might be necessary to invest in those boots after all.
Yeah... I need some new gortex boots myself (my $20 walmart boots are not working so great after 4 years of heavy abuse...)
http://www.amazon.com/Asolo-Mystic-GTX-Boot-Womens/dp/B004EXPBMG/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=shoes&qid=1292383571&sr=1-16&searchContext=B000JKUESO,B002W8K2PG,B001VH85D0,B002C749B0,B002C74942,B002C747VC,B002C746D6,B002C74668,B002C746MM,B002C749F6,B002C746K4,B002C74726,B002C7461S,B002C746A4,B003922PDG,B004EXPBMG
Wow, that's a NICE boot! I'll probably end up with something like this (http://www.salomon.com/us/product/nytro-wp.html) because that's what's available here, and my feet are such a strange size that I have to try shoes on.
Oh, you'd love the way people park here (please note that no side streets have been cleared of snow yet): they hit the gas and ram the car as far as they can into a snowbank! It makes me cringe every time.
Egads... Sounds like they REALLY need tank treads.
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