An hour and fifteen minutes of STRESS!

It has been widely rumored that us folks in Texas do not know how to drive on ice.  Well, pardon me, but when you grow up and only see snow or ice twice a year, max, it just doesn't seem like a priority, and it's definitely not worth the expense of snow tires.  At least that's how Texas used to be.

Enter the Polar Vortex!!!

Not that Poehler, silly.  I love having seasons.  I wouldn't be happy in California.  I normally really like winter.  But winter has outstayed its welcome.  I have a Facebook friend that lives in Austin.  She drives past a famous Mexican restaurant, El Arroyo, that is also known for their clever billboards.  The one she posted from last week said, "Go home winter.  You're drunk!"  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!  But it's true.

I look at the forecast on my phone every morning upon waking, and it is very surreal to see the prediction of highs in the 20's and lows in the teens.  I must have awakened in Canada!   This cannot be my balmy state.

So after two days of frigid temps already, I see on my tiny screen Thursday morning that there is a 50% chance of snow flurries in the afternoon.  Jav was working from home, and Jojo stays with him normally.  I had planned to take Gabriel for a half day, scheduled that way for afternoon parent/teacher conferences, and drive on to work.   When I went outside to load up the car and feed the birds just before leaving, I finally noticed the snow.  Already coming down.  Already stacking up and swirling around in the street.

This is a pic I took on my way into work.  Does this look like Texas to you?

We set out and there was nothing sticking.  I dropped of a gleeful Gabriel and made my way to work.  Halfway there I pulled to to stop at a light, and my brakes just gave and I dovetailed.  Me in my all-wheel-drive vehicle.  I should have turned around and gone back home.  But I stupidly drove on in.  We were all watching out the front windows in wonder at work.  It was snowing hard.  Everyone swapped their going-to-work stories, and everyone had slipped at least once.  Oh crap, we all started to realize.  What if we get trapped like those school kids in Atlanta?  I like my co-workers pretty well.  I do not want to spend the night with them.  Ever.

I called my brother who normally works downtown.  He was on the way home, and said the highway was fine but that downtown and side streets were awful.  A decision was made at my work to let everyone go home at noon.  I called Jav to see if he wanted me to leave earlier than that to pickup Gabriel.  His car is front-wheel-drive.  He said that it was only a few blocks, he thought he could handle it.  If this was a movie, you would hear ominious music as a sign of foreboding when he said that.  I made a decision when I left that I wouldn't get on the highway.  I just kept thinking an 18-wheeler would slide into me.  The only problem is that the road home instead is in the Trinity river bottoms, and winds around on hills like crazy.

What a fantastic decision.  The road was solid ice.  Not many people had been idiotic enough to drive it!  I kept downshifiting my automatic transmission into the lowest gear, and was progressing ok.  Then disaster struck when I came upon a pickup truck having trouble getting up a hill.  An 18 wheeler coming the other way had pulled way over the right to keep out of his way, but I still didn't think I had enough room to get around him safely.  So I had to stop.  When I braked, I started sliding backwards towards a ditch along the side of the road.  I stopped inches from where I would have possibly been stuck.  The pickup finally made it up the hill, and I prayed like crazy that I would do the same.  My transmission sounded as if it might fall out of the car.  But I made it.  Whew!!!  I used to love to drive on ice, and felt like it was a challenge for me to overcome.  This was not fun, it was very scary.

I very carefully drove on towards home, downshifting anywhere I needed to come to a complete stop, but sometimes just rolling through intersections without stopping, if it seemed safe.  It was slow going but really not bad - until I got to the main street that runs through our neighborhood.  There was another pickup that was stuck, and oncoming traffic was waiting for them to get unstuck, so I sat and waiting for a few minutes.  But then decided to be the jerk and go around everyone.  I also passed a fender bender that had just happened, and two more vehicles having trouble with small hills.

We live towards the bottom of a big hill, and coming down that hill was just awful.  It felt like my brakes were trying to get traction but failing.  But what was even more awful was seeing that my husband still wasn't home.  It was now 12:30, and he should have been there.  I saw that our driveway, which is also a big hill, was covered in ice.  I decided to park on the street where Jav had left his car all morning since that patch of street was clear of ice, in case his car got stranded and I could at least rescue cold boys.  I tried to call and got no answer.  I called my mom, completely panicked, wondering if I should go look for them.  This really didn't make sense - let's have wrecks in BOTH vehicles instead of just one! - and she tried to calm me by saying Jav would have called if there was anything wrong.

I went inside but didn't take any outerwear off.  Jav finally called and said he was trying a different, more traveled, way home from the school.  The main road, had indeed, been one sliding vehicle after another, and to top things off they had just let the high school out when he drove by the first time.  Teenagers driving on ice = a place to stay far, far away from.  I got restless waiting for them to get home and went outside to put out more seed for the birds.  I heard the garbage truck before I saw it, and wondered why the city had not called them all back in this mayhem.  The truck turned slowly, stopped and emptied our bin, and tried to keep going UP the hill.  Nope, not that try.  Again, halfway up, then sliding back down.  With my car right in his path if he made one wrong move driving backwards.  I was going to have to stand and watch a garbage truck crash in to my car and I couldn't do a thing about it.  Why did he keep trying?  PURE STUPIDITY is my guess.  He finally made it up the hill, and that's when I saw Jav's car, patiently waiting for the kamakazi truck to get out of his way.

Not actually the garbage truck that almost crushed my car.  

They made it safely, and I actually cried tears of thankfulness.  A trip to school and back normally takes 15 minutes, tops.  Jav left at 11:45 and got home at 1:00.  I hugged all three boys, and we all watched the garbage truck come back down the hill, skipping the houses on the worst of the slope, and shook our heads.

I felt like having a shot of whiskey to calm my frazzled nerves, but I settled for mac and cheese and hot tea.  And a long, long nap.