So, had a few adventures today. Earlier this week I did my take-home final for Japanese Culture, which wasn’t bad at all. And today I went to the mall with Dawn and Danny and did a bit of shopping, got my sister’s Christmas present, and then we came back to my place after stopping at Dawn’s. It’d been raining all day, and for those of you unaware, it’s JUST below freezing right now, so all that rain was turning into ice on the roads. FUN.
So, the first mini-adventure was when we were coming back into my driveway, and I turned towards my garage so I could turn around, and partway through, we just slid sideways a bit. So my normally two-point turn became a four-pointer as I compensated, and then we had to walk very carefully for the combined 30 feet or so until you get to my front door, since the entire driveway was ice and such. Not fun.
The second was at around 7 when we were driving Dawn home. My dad had salted my driveway and such, so I was able to get out of there fine, but we began to slide when going down my access road, about halfway down. We ended up turning at about a 45 degree angle. That “tap-tap-tap” the brake only does so much, it seems. But we got out of that fine, and slowly made our way to Dawn’s, where Adventure #2 happened.
There, I was going to turn up her driveway, and we thought her parents were about to leave, so I was turning to go in front of their truck instead. Because of the headlights, I couldn’t see Dawn’s dad waving at me not to, and Dawn warned me too late, so we ended up sliding sideways again, and THIS time my front driver’s side wheel ended up in their ditch at the bottom of the sidewalk, and the rear passenger’s side was in the air a little. The 4-wheel drive couldn’t really do a lot there. Luckily, the sanding guy just happened to be passing by, since they wouldn’t be able to get down the driveway to pull me out without running into my car, and he pulled me out. Also much more powerful than their truck, so many thanks to him and Dawn’s dad.
After that, Danny and I went to Zellers, where I talked to Courtney and John about how it’ll likely freeze overnight and I might not be able to leave my house and get to work in time since it’s in the morning, so Courtney and I switched shifts, since she’s always up early anyway, and she just walks to work. So yay for that. Then we went to Wendy’s and were fatties.
Adventure #3 came when we were going to take Danny home at around 12:30. My driveway was again icy and such, so it was a hell of a time getting up to my car, especially for Danny since he was in flats and had no grip, and even I could barely keep from slipping in my boots. So we helped each other up, until we got to the dirt part where I park, which had turned to mud, which in turn had frozen into ice. So I had Danny just walk a little further up the driveway while I tried, slowly, to get to my door. At one point, I was almost there, but then I started sliding down the slight slope and had to grab onto the hood of my car and pull myself around. Eventually, I got it, and I was going to leave the parking spot (slowly, of course), and about halfway out I slipped on the ice and my rear slid sideways. Not good for the car, really, but it got me straight onto the driveway, so I was able to get up and Danny got in. We went up the driveway and were turning to go down the access road when we saw a small black bear run across. I was going about 5 km/h at that point, anyway, so as to avoid slipping, so we were able to stop and look at it a little bit. Then we went down, and I slid again this time, but not as much and I was able to do the tapping and keep myself straight. When we got to the bridge, a deer was going across as well. NATURE EVERYWHERE! =D
Finally, when I got home, ohohoho. Before I even came up the big hill that leads to all the houses and my access road and such (to give an idea, there’s the main road going up the mountain where all the other streets attached branch off, and that road is in turn attached to a larger road going parallel/on the mountain at the bottom, and my access road and communal driveway branches off near the top, going in the opposite direction and sorta parallel to this road) I stopped to turn on the 4WD. Well, I was going about 15 at the time, and I STILL slid a little forward, and it was mostly flat there. Anyway, I got it in gear and got up the hill and the access road and such fine, and managed to turn around. So I was up, trying to reverse into my parking spot like I always do so as to make leaving tomorrow easier, when my rear wheels slip out and onto the driveway, much the same as when I was taking Danny home. So I went up a little higher this time, and tried again, and the same thing happened, just with more swing. So I sat there and thought for a minute, and decided I’d better park at the bottom on the main road and walk up the path leading to my house. So I did that with minimal sliding, but then coming UP my path we have a section where we put in stairs instead of leaving the dirt and such there. These stairs were VERY slippery, and I had to hold onto the plants for dear life to get up. All in all, that walk took me 15 minutes, and normally it takes about 2 at the most.
I am SO happy I don’t need to try to get to Zellers at 8 tomorrow. <3 Courtney for that.
Now, since Robbie isn’t on, I’m gonna head to bed since Danny is gone as well. I really hope it gets better tomorrow. And I wish the BEST of luck to poor Dawn, who has to survive her driveway from the top at 6 AM. I hope her sliding abilities work.
