Winter Driving, and blues...
As a transplanted Texan in Ohio, I find that driving in winter is a bit unnerving. There was snow forecast for this evening, so I scurried to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and after dropping off the stuff at home, I went to the theater for rehearsal. The director was aware of the forecast and promised to get us out by 8 p.m. On my way to the theater, around 6 o'clock, I noticed a truck salting the roadway in anticipation - the forecast was being taken seriously.
We ran through Act II, with only a few notes from the director, who mentioned that it had started snowing earlier. Holy cow! I had to brush snow off the back window, both side windows (to see the mirrors), the headlights, the tail lights, while the wipers pushed snow off the windshield. Also, I brushed a bunch off the hood, because I didn't want that stuff flying back up onto the windshield. So far, so good...
It was small flakes, but it was thick - I've never been in a white-out, but this seemed pretty dang close. And I had to drive in it. My biggest concern was going over one overpass over a highway. I don't think the salting helped that much, but there was traffic, so I was trying to stay in the wheel tracks of previous vehicles. The snow had already started packing up on the back window, and I didn't know if there was a heating element in it (it's a convertible). Luckily, I could still see my side rear view mirrors pretty clearly, at least.
Of course, the overpass was not a simple flat overpass - it was sloped up and down. I gritted my teeth and kept a steady speed, but still felt a little wiggle as I climbed up the slope - but no major fishtail, thank goodness. Still a bit of a white-knuckle experience....
Made it to the main road I needed to get to my neighborhood. This road was a bit better - I think because it runs to a main trauma center a few blocks further down from our place. There was one clear lane running either direction - which is normally two lanes each way, plus a center turn lane, which I would need to turn towards home. Of course, it wasn't clear...but I managed to handle it. The street in the neighborhood was mostly undisturbed, and the next difficult part would be getting up the apron of the driveway, which as a good angle. Fingers crossed, a little more gas to climb it, only a slight slide, and I was able get in the garage and parked. Phew!
I'm glad I don't have to go to work tomorrow - but I'm supposed to go in Saturday. The weather app on my phone shows possible snow on Friday and Sunday, but partly cloudy for Saturday. What do you think?