The Last Ice Storm
It was a few years ago, here in Iowa. The day before, I had told my ice storm story from yesterday’s blog, at a staff meeting when we were discussing this upcoming potential ice storm.
And now it was very early in the morning, my wife was getting ready to go to work. I looked outside and told her she must stay home. I had already prepared to work from home that day. She was determined “to try”. I went out on the front porch, put one foot down on the shiny wet sidewalk. It was thick, deep ice, covered in rapidly freezing rain. Back inside I went, “You are not going to work, it is a sheet of ice”.
“No, I am still going to try”. My wife gets determined that way. Stubborn.
So, I agreed to test it for her, I would go down the driveway, and check out the subdivision. Jumped into the car in the garage in only shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops. I’d be right back.
As I gently pulled out of the garage, my car registered a temperature of 37 degrees. I put on the wipers. It was raining. The headlights reflected off the shiny wet concrete with an unusual depth. Still, as I crept forward without touching the gas, I was navigating the driveway… almost to the gravel lane. Surely the gravel, with its roughness would be easy to drive on. As I turned onto the gravel, I tested the brakes… going only two or three miles per hour… the car kept going. It was then I realized I had a problem. The gravel lane is only one car width wide, I could not turn back around. The neighbors driveway was downward sloping to their garage. If I tried to turn around there, I might end up sliding down, busting right through their garage door. I kept going. This was crazy bad.
As I reached the end of the lane, managed to get stopped, contemplating the turn, my car slowly slid sideways on its own, off the gravel, into a slight gully. I was now stuck. This was bad.
A block from the house. Pitch black. Rain coming down on ice. My car helpfully telling me the outside temperature was now 30 degrees. Wearing only my shorts, shirt, and flip-flops. Without my cell phone. I needed to make it back home. It was only a block away. I gingerly got out of the car. Managed to stay upright, hand on the car, moving back towards the house. Losing the safety of holding onto the car I took two or three steps, then fell flat on my back. Laying on the wet ice, looking up into the blackness of the night, rain falling on my face. This was bad.
Worse, as I rolled over and made it to my knees I realized I had lost a flip-flop in the fall… nowhere to be seen. Crawling forward, I slowly made it towards the snow on the side of the road. Perhaps I could get some traction there and stand up. Yay! I could, barely. One flip-flop, one bare foot, I hobbled forward on the icy snow, covered in cold falling rain. I fell again. This time a face plant. Looking up, I could barely see my missing flip-flop on the snow in front of me. A small success from the latest fall. Staying parallel to the road, I eventually made it home. Falling several more times.
I opened the front door. There was my family, now all awakened, waiting for me. They burst into laughter at the sight of me standing, soaked, blood trickling down both knees, and one palm. Thankfully no one thought to take a picture or I’d have to post in here.