The ice storm over the past weekend may be ancient history for most people, but we still have so much ice on our driveway, I almost couldn’t get my car in the garage this afternoon! Here’s the driveway:
The neighbor’s house across the street faces North, and this is what their yard looks like one week after the sleet fell:
On Tuesday, the day the kids went back to school, I saw an accident right in front of me when a truck was going too fast over an icy bridge and spun out, hitting the outside wall with his bumper. He was able to continue driving it, but there was plenty of damage from what I could see. That same day, on another icy bridge, I heard the unmistakable sound of tires sliding on ice behind me and looked back just in time to see another pick-up sliding from the outside lane to the inside lane, almost taking out my back bumper in the process! But the worst was when we got home Tuesday just after dark and the driveway was totally iced over but wet on top from the few hours we were above freezing. That time, I tried – repeatedly – to pull my van into the garage but just couldn’t get enough traction. My tires would slip and spin and no matter what gear I was in, I just couldn’t make it. So I had to let the kids out on the ice, and all 3 of them fell at some point. But the very worst moment happened when Peter fell and took Matthew’s slush from Sonic with him. The whole thing was dumped out on the ice leaving a bright red spot that looked to an innocent bystander like someone had smashed their head open and bled out. I think we were all expecting Matthew to actually attempt this with Peter’s head, but surprisingly, he handled it very well and accepted Peter’s offer to share his drink with him.
As for my car, I did finally get it in the garage…by backing all the way into the alley, then entering the garage at an angle. This put me on Brad’s side of the garage, but by the time he got home from work, the slick ice was re-frozen and he pulled directly into my side. So all’s well the end’s well. Oh, and as for the dropped slush? Well, the dog ended up licking and biting the ice until she removed all traces of red. In return, she left plenty of yellow, but thankfully we all know not to eat that.
