Jan 24 - Statutory Holly Day

Brrr. It's cold out there, and windier than the north shore of Hawaii. Thanks to the wind, the roads are completely drifted over, and thanks to the ice underneath, if you don't already have forward momentum (i.e. you get stuck), you're stuck. I pulled the car out of the garage and with the headlights bright, got a good look at what lay ahead. The snow drifts were higher than the clearance of my car in places. I thought about taking my dad's SUV to pack down a path, or staying home and clearing the driveway before going to work (I already regret not doing this), but instead I decided to charge forward with my car.

I made it through the drifts in the driveway, which I knew would be larger than anything I saw on the roads since there's no traffic to pack them down, and thought I was home free. Getting through the drifts was a lot of fun, sort of like skidooing. Grasswood road continued the ride. With the snow pulling at the car and the ice underneath giving no traction whatsoever, I was on the verge of losing control of the back of my car several times and was all over the road trying to get through. This was also fun.

Then I got to Grasswood. A semi was stuck on the turn to the service road. That should've been a warning. Another semi got in front of me and took the turn REALLLLLY slow. So I had to pretty much come to a stop behind him and then I was done for. Stuck in snow that was much less deep than the driveway because of the semi.

A guy in a car who also wanted to get through came out to help me and the semi driver also came but I just couldn't get any traction. Another guy driving by in his truck stopped to help push, and we spent 15 minutes trying to clear the area enough and get my car going. Obviously we finally did and the rest of the trip to work was uneventful. The worst part of getting stuck is not actually being stuck, nor embarassment over it, it's getting out. See, once you get out, when the roads still are as drifted as they were, there's no stopping (unless you want to get stuck again). So you can't really get out and thank everyone for their help, you just sorta drive off feeling like a jackass for the better part of the day. Not that anyone reads this anyway, but just to make myself feel a little better, thank-you to the good samaritans that helped me outside Saskatoon that cold and windy morning of Jan 21, 2005.

Now, if it's any consolation, the worst has not yet come, according to a recent report. It turns out that the worst day of the year is supposed to be Jan 24. Which should be about right, given that it's a Monday and this is likely going to be a busy weekend with little to no sleep to say the least. There should really be a long weekend in January since after New Year's, there's not another holiday until Easter. We have enough things to celebrate here in Canada that we could make excuses for another long weekend or two. Like young pretty girls named Holly.

Fun links for the day:

What I Wished I'd Known In Highschool - An interesting if a bit rambling look at life and success.
Drums - How to play "rock and roll"... using a keyboard.