Shortly after leaving the house.
I woke up this morning at my usual way too early time and proceeded to prepare for Monday, yuck. I flipped on the local news so I could ‘educate’ myself while I put on my shoes and I briefly heard something along the lines of ‘possible light dusting of snow’ and mostly just ignored it. It’s been a pretty snowless-winter, and now that it’s March, I am totally over it and ready for spring. I did glance out the window into the dark and confirmed, that no, it was not snowing. Since it was clearly not a snow day, I finished getting ready and I was out the door right on time, 20 minutes after the alarm went off. Yeah, I get ready that fast on a daily basis, boom to you, non-morning people.
Out the door and into a very light flurry that would be better described as a, spitting of wet. Ye haw. I hopped in my pickup truck, and down the drive I went.
A few miles later It started to snow harder and made for a pretty, white splashed sunrise.
But then it started to stick to the grass and my windshield and stuff. Hum.
Big flakes, hum...
A few more miles, and well crap, it was sticking to the roads and sort of getting gross out. I listened avidly to the radio, but the local schools were still not being listed with the delays and closing. Being a big ‘drive in the snow’ pussy, because ‘I can drive, but other people can’t,’ I generally do not leave my house in bad weather at all costs. But if the schools were still in so it couldn’t be that bad, right?
(all photos of the drive were taken previous to this point in my travel)
Ok, so at that point, it started sucking. I was about half way to work and I had to drive all slow on this twisty back road, and there was snow all over it and it was coming down pretty hard and did I mention my truck is rear wheel drive? Should I turn around? School was still in, I am already out of bed, dressed and out the door, I suppose I should keep going, right?
For those of you that say “you drive a truck, you should be good in all sorts of weather”, you know nothing. To educate the masses, everyone should be aware that a pickup has all its weight in the front. None in the back. And unlike those little compact, front wheel drive, awesome in snow cars, my ride’s power comes from the rear wheels. So in bad weather it’s like pushing an off balanced wheel barrel through slop. Yes I can put it in 4-wheel drive, if I pull over and use the back of the snow scraper to force the twisty things on the two front wheels to turn, and yeah, it’s better in 4-wheel, but it still sucks way more than most commuter cars. Of course there was no where good to pull over at that point, even if my genius self had thought of that option.
starting to dust the road...
Then, nearing the end of the twisty back road, where I cross over the interstate and push on through the little towns to reach my place of work, I passed a VDOT hub. VDOT must have treated the road for a few miles because it turned from white to water. Ahhhh. Shoulders unclench and knuckles turn back to pink.
Until I reached my work road, which is another twisty back road, and again, was white, and slippery, and I was just relieved no cars were racing up behind me at 60mph insisting I go faster than the 30mph I was cruising at.
I arrived safely, parked and went inside, 15 minutes later than my usual arrival time. stupid snow.
Consequently, three of my workmates called in over the next 20 minutes to report they were in accidents and would be late or not in at all, and several others spun around trying to pull into our parking lot. Oh yeah, and the local school system decided to call off for the day.
photo taken of my truck from an office window right after getting inside.
It is currently lunchtime, and although the snow has stopped, we certainly have more than a dusting. The stupid jerk faced snow should have started 15 minutes earlier so I could have enjoyed a snow day! Or maybe if I wasn’t such a jump-out-of-bed-on-the-first-alarm type of person I could have snoozed myself into a snow day?
I guess I’ll have to wait until next year for a snow day.
Frowny face :O(
All Things Krista 