indigo_rose99

I went out of the house for the first time in days last night. T & I had planned a dinner in the middle of the city with my aunt and uncle for a while. They called me to let me know that they were on the edge of the city at about 4:45pm, with a plan to meet us at 6pm. I thought, "Gee, maybe I better go de-ice my car."

I put on clothes suitable for other people to see me, put on gloves and hike boots and went outside to my car. The passenger side was not too bad... A few minutes of scraping and knocking off ice, and I managed to get inside the car and turn on the defrosters front and back. And then... And then... And then I stood outside for the next hour and fifteen minutes, cracking and scraping off ice. I focused on the windshield, deciding that the defroster would take care of the back window and the driver side windows were pretty much a lost cause. The ice varied in thickness, up to an inch thick in some places. Seriously. Yes, an inch thick. Ok, it was even thicker than that around the windshield wipers, which I also gave up as a lost cause. T arrived around 6pm, and took care of the back window as I finished up the windshield. He was the one who took care of the driver's side windows -- rolling them down from the inside and knocking out the ice from that direction.

Yes, and in all that time, the defrosters only helped. Helped. They did not actually completely melt the ice. They just made it... looser.

We arrived at dinner about 45 minutes late. Turns out, inside the city it was above freezing! How very strange! My car had not been melting in our driveway, but melted enough to take off the last sheets of ice in the parking lot of the restaurant (it is bad form to have sheets of ice fall off and hit other cars while one is driving).

I could see last night that T thought I was all kinds of wimp for it taking me that long to dig out the windshield of my car. It took him an hour today to dig out his truck -- and that was after the temperatures rose yesterday AND this morning!!! It was like a defroster had been working on the whole truck before he even started. His attitude toward me digging out my car last night underwent a subtle shift. *smile*

What do they know that I don't know?

We had been hearing about the upcoming ice storm to hit Texas for days. We knew it would hit Sunday night. As of the news this morning, it sounded like it would start out icy and get worse as the day progresses, very likely even worse tomorrow. Every radio station and every TV station said "Do not drive unless you must. Stay home if you possibly can!"

My employer this week even shut down. Well, at least initially they decided to start an hour late this morning for some buildings... I drove into work. Carefully. Slowly. After digging my car out of 2 inches of sleet imitating snow. What with the little traffic on the road, I even made good time. Then the company decided to shut everything down at 2pm. That was fine with me. The supervisor of the classes talked with my class, and decided to head home at 1pm and play tomorrow by ear.

So I drove home at about 1pm... I took a longer route, avoiding overpasses and raised highways. I drove about 40 mph on access roads and 60 on the interstate. And I was getting passed! Not creeping kind of passed, but people acting like "What are you doing, going so slow, you crazy bitch!?!" as they passed me. I would slow down every time I felt my tires start to slip (which they did, any time I went over 60pm on the highway). It was not sleeting, but the ice on my side windows that I was not able to scrape off... Not exactly melting. And I could hear the ice on my tires protesting (yes, my tires were iced. Thanks.)

Midway home, there was a NASTY accident on the other side of the highway. Cars backed up for at least a mile. I counted five cop cars (and I wasn't trying to count them, I was trying to watch my side of the road) and could see the innards of a car over the top of the concrete divider. "innards" == parts of it were raised and crumpled in ways that seemed... life altering.

I saw cars entering the raised highways instead of favoring the on-ground roads (which are warmer, and less likely to be icey). And all of those people going past me at what must have been 70mph at least! What do they know that I don't? Do they have better tires? Their vehicles were sometimes heavier... Perhaps they get better traction? Perhaps they just feel immortal for no particularly good reason?