Icy Birthday Travels and Patriots Unravels

File Photo - New "Old" Friends
Birthday Boy in the Back

Yesterday was a fun if somewhat precarious day.  We rushed through our normal Sunday routine and then headed up north to New Hampshire to attend a birthday dinner for the father of the Most Excellent Girlfriend of my son.  The weather was problematic but the weather guys were saying just a couple inches of snow.  As a native New Englander I laughed at the prospect of having to deal with this miniscule amount of snow.  I was properly haughty when asked by my snow-phobic wife about the dangers of travelling.

Everything went well until we were about twenty miles from our destination.  We had just turned onto Route 3 into New Hampshire when traffic ground to a halt.  The snow was now being coated by freezing rain and we passed at least ten accidents in the short distance to our destination.  Interestingly most of these accidents involved SUVs with four wheel drive.  Apparently they didn’t get the memo that four wheel drive doesn’t help on glare ice and you need to slow down.

My wife launched into a discussion of my former haughtiness in deciding to make the trip as we passed by accident after accident.  We gingerly reached our target which turned out to be only about ten miles from the house of my first fiancé, kind of eerie on a very eerie day. 

We were greeted my son and MEG and the warmth of the company of her parents more than made up for the travails of the trip.  We’ve only been with these great people a few times but each time it seems like we’re getting together with old friends.  It’s easy to see where the MEG gained her grace and personality. The time sped by too quickly but when the sun set I knew we had to get back on the icy roads before they froze completely.

The roads out of New Hampshire were actually better than when we arrived and we made steady progress home.  I figured we were better off as we moved south and we were until we made the turn towards Worcester.  We were almost at the speed limit when we crested a hill and were greeted by six different cars (5 SUVs) sprawled off the road in all directions.  We slowed (way down).  We limped into our home town and my wife let out a big breath as we turned onto our street, claiming relief at reaching home.

In a moment of revenge for her haughtiness comments earlier, I reminded her that we still had to get up our driveway, which had not been treated.  Having been through a couple harrowing trips up that driveway before, she immediately lost all feelings of relief.  We made the turn into the driveway and fishtailed out way up to the top of the driveway (Highlander!!!!).  While we stopped and waited for the garage door to open I told my wife to look out because we were sliding back down the hill.  She immediately demanded I do something.  She took my laugh as answer enough.  I was able to shift the car over to the edge where we eventually stopped in the grass (and destroyed one of my snow poles (again). 

I threw some salt down and after ten minutes was able to get the car into the garage where I saw that it was completely coated in about a half inch of ice – even the hood over the motor.  A tense drive but the superb time we had up in New Hampshire more than redeemed the effort.

We settled in to watch the Patriots take on another of the NFL’s top teams, the 49ers.  For three quarters the Patriots were uncharacteristically sloppy and totally outplayed by an obviously hungrier team.  Even old friend Randy Moss scored against the Pats and it looked like they were going to get run out of their own stadium.  I had worried that the National Conference teams were significantly stronger that the American Conference and that certainly seemed to be the case.  Then Tom Brady woke up and brought the team back from 28 points down to tie the game late in the 4^th quarter.  Having come all the way back they decided not to cover the ensuing kickoff and were shortly down 7 points again. 

This loss didn’t hurt as much as others because they were clearly the lesser team for most of the game but somehow found a way to rally and almost pulled off a comeback for the ages.  While they did lose, I think they sent a message that they never quit and did hang 34 points on supposedly the best defense in the league. 

Today I head out through the ice to have Mohs surgery for the skin cancer.  I’ve confided to my wife that for some reason I’m very concerned about this.  She doesn’t handle this well as she doesn’t want to face unpleasant possibilities so she’s just told me to knock it off, that everything will be fine (probably good advice).  I sometimes worry that I’m so blessed in other facets of my life with two great children, a great job, a great wife, great family and friends that I will have a pay a price for my good fortune.  Just hope it isn’t today.

Where the Car Slid Back to

Ice Coated Car

Painful to Watch for Three Quarters