Cookies and Ice!

Kryptonite!

Last night’s ride home was a little eventful.  The day was actually a little warm with temperatures in the high thirties even though it was snowing.  The roads were all wet.  An arctic front came through the area around 3PM and all the roads immediately froze.  This meant drivers should slow down and take it easy.  As expected there’s always a couple of idiots out there that think 4 wheel drive beats ice. Ice wins every time in that fight.  I was just outside of Worcester when there was a huge pileup directly ahead of me because one of the idiots, going too fast for conditions, plowed into a telephone pole.  Traffic backed up on both sides instantly.  One of the benefits of being a former infantry officer is that I always recon different routes wherever I live.  It drives my wife to distraction at times as I wander down different roads to get to the same place.  Last night it paid benefits as I did a U turn and used three or four branches down the decision tree of options.  It really beat waiting for the traffic to clear.  When I got home I had to tidy up the driveway because we live on a hill and that means the snow gets blown into the driveway requiring it to be moved two or three times.  Buddy was loving it and was charging around the yard just rejoicing in the snow.  He never seems to get tired when snow is available.  The next door neighbor came over to thank me for the early morning clearing of her driveway and she was doing it in a language I speak fluently – freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.  I had three phone calls with the wife down in Panama, including a truly bittersweet three way conversation with our son who is leaving today for Central Asia.  I leave for Panama next week to celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary.  She was telling me that there could be a problem with me getting to her hometown because of all things – an Indian uprising.  Indians, upset with some government decisions on mining in their mountain homelands, have blocked the Pan-American Highway.  This provides the only access between Panama City, where I fly into, and the province of Chiriquí, which is where she is.  So I’ve got that to look forward to as well as cleaning the house this weekend to get it back into some semblance of acceptability after a month’s worth of bachelor occupation in hopes of passing the wife’s initial inspection.  At least the plants are still alive. 

Cars Can't Skate