Life of Brian

After yesterday’s failed attempt at driving to work in the Miata, Donna decided to ensure we would make it to work on Tuesday. She called friend & coworker Mark (Hi Mark!), who has a 4 wheel drive pickup truck and passes near Casa de Bogardus on his commute, to ask for a ride in. Because Mark goes to work about an hour before us, we set our mental clocks back an hour and physically set our alarm clock back by the like amount.

Mark called around six this morning and said he checked his road, it was solid ice and with discretion being the better part of valor, he was not going to attempt the trip right now. Mark is south and rural from us in a very hilly part of the county and I told him don’t risk it on our account. I said I’d go outside and see what my road looked like, if it didn’t look too bad, we might try it in the Miata. We left it at that, you call me or I’ll call you.

I walked outside and our driveway was still very icy, but the road in front of the house was spotty; dry, then icy, then dry, and so on. I told Donna, “Let’s give it a shot. If we only get as far as we did yesterday, so be it.” Today was the exact opposite of yesterday’s drive, our street was the tricky part, but manageable. When we got to the main artery, Whiskey Road, it was almost entirely clean. So were the rest of the roads, until we made it to work. The 5 lanes in front of the plant had two clean lanes on either side of a very crunchy center turn lane. Fortunately traffic was nearly non-existent so I could slow to 10 MPH in the 55 zone and get into the plant’s driveway without being rear ended. The driveway and the parking were very slippery and did require some extra care navigating, but we made it to work safe and sound.

When I got to my desk I called Mark, to call him a wimp and let him know if he did make the trip in, not to stop at our place, we weren’t there. Mark did make it into work several hours later. He took it slowly for a couple miles until he got to Petticoat Junction (see, I told you rural and yes, that is the actual name of that crossroads area) and then the roads were pretty much clear the rest of the way in.

It was coming down slowly when we went to bed last night and it was still coming down this morning when we woke up, there was probably 1 to 1-1/2 inches of snow on the ground. We checked the local news channel’s web site and there amongst the school closings was a note that ASCO was opening with a two hour delay. We promptly went back to bed for 2 hours. When we got up a second time Donna packed lunches, we had breakfast and I went outside and swept the snow off the tarp covered car port, so it wouldn’t collapse like it did last February.

After first saying no I wouldn’t drive to work, I relented and said I’d give it a try. I put 3 cinder blocks in the trunk for traction (for reference purposes I could have fit 4 if I didn’t have the CD changer back there) and we set off slowly down the street. We made it out to the main road without too much trouble, but we were driving on virgin snow. When we got to a main artery the traction was much dicier because there had been some traffic through it, but not enough to clean anything off, just rearrange it. After a block or so of slipping around we decided to head back to the barn.

Donna could do a lot of work from home, so she monopolized the PC most of the day and I read a book. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. Tonight it is supposed to go back below freezing and traction will possibly be even more elusive on the resulting ice.