Tuesday, December 8, 2009

It was inevitable.

Winter seems to be coming in. It's been a weird year - cold October, warm November (well, warm for Vermont, anyway...), no snow till December. Since that first sticking snow, it's been spitting snow almost continuously. (That's our expression, up here. If it's snowing lightly, we say "It's spitting snow.")
Last night it was coming down hard. On the way home, as I was headed up a small hill (well, small for Vermont, anyway...), a car in the other lane started fishtailing. I figured he was headed for the ditch, since he was going pretty nearly sideways as he came past me. I didn't look back to see, since there was a lot of traffic and I needed to watch for what was going on up ahead. He was going too fast for conditions, and especially going too fast for conditions going downhill. Traffic going my way was creeping along, and I was content to creep with it.
At least there was no black ice.*

*For you Southerners, black ice is the slipperiest substance known to man. The truly fun part is that it looks exactly like wet pavement.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our weather patterns have been exactly like yours. Cold October, warm November, cold December. It has been drizzling snow (my own expression; most people use your "spitting snow") since last Thursday but we have less than 2" accumulation.

I'm glad Mr. I-Can-Drive-As-Fast-As-I-Want didn't slide into your car.

Laurie said...

Ours too. Hate black ice, especially when I land on it with my keister.

Anna M said...

Yup, it's finally here. I'm not quite ready, talk about procrastination! Hopefully I'll see you next week when I pick up my glasses and I still need a trip out to the meat market. Crossing my fingers we get a good day next week for both!

elizabeth said...

I might be a Southerner, but I know what black ice is! Especially since we mostly get ice in Alabama, and also, in the dead of summer, the oil collects on the blacktop and is slippery too.

It's going to be 62 today.

Diane said...

Let's all go visit Elizabeth. It's going to be zero here tonight.

My half hour commute took me 2 hours this morning. Never seen the roads here so full of ice. Should have stayed home.