Friday, November 21, 2008

Driving Test

On Wednesday my daughter's school had a field trip to the recycling center, and they needed parents to help drive the kids there (they took the bus home). I turned out to be one of about 15 drivers. What made this interesting was that it had rained the evening before (actually more like the whole week before), then it cleared up and everything froze. My car was encased in about a quarter inch of ice and the doors were frozen closed. I was running late by the time I managed to get into the car and get enough of the ice off that I could see to drive, but as soon as I got out to the paved road, I realized that I wouldn’t make up any time driving.

I was the last of the drivers to get to the school, but they were still waiting for a couple of students. There was black ice everywhere, and even walking in the parking lot was nearly impossible. Amazingly, winter tires make it possible to drive even when it’s that slick. Obviously, I wouldn’t want to risk crashing with my daughter in the car, but I was extra careful with somebody else’s kid in the car too. So then I end up in the middle of the caravan that was going a bit faster than I was comfortable with. Luckily I caught up at a stop sign, and then the whole group got stuck behind a tractor with a load of beets, so speed was no longer an issue. Still, I felt like I was doing a driving test the whole time because the only thing worse than crashing with somebody else’s kid in your car would be causing a chain reaction crash involving the whole school. I’m relieved that’s over.

Since then, we’ve had gale force winds, rain, sleet, hail, and now snow. Fun, fun!

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