Scary streets, kind hosts

[dreamshark]

It's all third-hand to me, but still scary. I skipped the Minnstf meeting, spending most of the day either at the gym or puttering around with my iTunes collection. I was still at the latter activity at midnight or so when I got a call from Thorin and Richard. They were trying to drive home from the Minnstf meeting (which is maybe 4 miles from our house). After some indefinitely long interval of sliding into curbs and spinning their wheels trying to get up little hills they had only made it to 50th and Washburn (a little over a mile from the meeting) and had concluded that they simply could not progress. A layer of thin but tough ice had descended from the sky to completely coat the streets, and whatever you call the stuff that was continuing to fall was keeping the ice layer constantly lubricated with water. The result was apparently as close to a zero-friction environment as it is possible to maintain on a city street.

They were driving the Mazda, which is not a great ice and snow car but definitely better than the van sitting in front of our house. So there was no way I could come and rescue them. Since they couldn't get up the hill in front of them, I suggested that they go back to the Minnstf meeting and throw themselves on the mercy of the hosts. About a half hour later (!) Thorin called back to say that they had finally made it back to the safe house and would probably spend the night there. They arrived home this morning at about 11am, reporting that the roads are still treacherous but are now drivable. *shudder* It's funny that with all the dramatic weather that this state is capable of providing, the most paralyzing seems to be a dinky little drizzle of freezing rain.

Thanks to fmsv and cowfan for providing shelter for some unexpected house guests. I certainly hope that everybody else made it home okay.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Indeed. This morning, I blithely went outside... and slipped on the ice. Twice. Stepping out on the street was safer than the sidewalk. Still, If walking is this bad, the streets must have bad patches. Still.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Ouch. I hope you didn't hurt yourself.

This is one of those days that I contemplate the invention that I can't believe nobody has come up with yet: something that sprays a handful of grit or deicer onto the sidewalk in front of you as you walk.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm fine. The first was an inelegant flop. The second, when I was walking carefully, was a Keystone Cops pratfall on the keister. Good thing I've lost weight...

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

This morning I got the Ice Bite out of the closet and sprinkled the front walk. My goal was to make a safe passage out to the parkway, so that I could look in the windows of the car that was sitting at the bottom of our hill, blinkers on, and had been sitting there for quite some time.

I got out there just fine, in time to see the city's salt and sand spreading truck come down the hill, slide through the stop sign and bounce up onto the curb beyond.

The car was empty, the truck driver spread even more salt and sand, and backed himself off the parkway grass and made his turn. (The car was just enough out of his way as to be no problem.)

K.

[carbonel]

I'm grateful to Thorin and Richard for being the cautionary tale. I made it home safely, partly because they warned me just how bad it really was. (I'd been prepared to head right back to the Minn-stf meeting if I didn't have control, but the car behaved well under the circumstances.)

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Which is clearly a testimonial to the model of car you drive. What might that be (in case I'm thinking about winter next time in the market for a car)?

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

Snow Tires & FWD will do for all but the MOST! extreme winters we get. If you really think you need a new car look at the Suzuki SX 4 hatchback. It has AWD & putting a good set of mud & snows adds up to at least 6 nines of traction.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Fiona and her boyfriend were driving home from a play at Southwest High school last night, and slithered into a snowbank. Her boyfriend wisely thought he shouldn't attempt to drive any further, and called for his dad to come pick them up. On the way there, his dad got into a gentle slither-tap-the bumper with two other cars, but it all looked all right--until a 17 year old kid barreled into him and smashed the rear end.

Crazy.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I bused home after spending the afternoon at the old place handing off freecycle items. By the time I'd had supper I was too tired to bus to the Mnstf meeting and instead went early to bed - only to wake this morning to all these reports of icy streets. I'm very glad Richard and Thorin found shelter and stayed off the streets.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Lydy and I left the meeting at what was, in hindsight, an excellent time -- before the rain really started (so before it froze).

And didn't leave the house today until after it had melted to ordinary wet streets.

So we missed all the excitement. Go us!

[pameladean]

Eric and I left just as the rain started. It was freezing on the windshield already, and the streets got slippery quite suddenly about halfway back to my house. By the time we went out this afternoon, with me wittering anxiously, the streets were fine, although north-facing sidewalks still had nasty ice on them.

I hate this kind of dithery back-and-forth around the freezing point of water stuff. It's much worse than really cold weather.

P.