Perpetual Ruminations

Wednesday

Wow, I can't believe how beat I am. I was scheduled for yesterday and today off, but we had a storm move in, and no one knew for sure when it would hit, or how bad. So, the person who was scheduled to open called me yesterday afternoon to let me know he would not be going in, do to the storm. I got up at three this morning and drove in around four. It was cold, but mostly because of the wind. The temperature itself was about thirty five, but the wind was blowing at about forty mph and gusting to around sixty.

Other that this, it was dry and I had no trouble driving in. I wasn't feeling very good, but that was the only trouble I had. Around eight, a few flakes began to fall, and by nine it was snowing pretty hard. Still, not bad, and nothing like had been predicted. By ten thirty, it was useless to shovel the slab off, it filled in as fast as I cleaned it off. By the time I made my drive home, it was icy and slick, with visibility down to about a block or less.

But, I made it home and didn't have much for problems. It was very slick, but I was driving slow enough not to have any trouble with the Jimmy, although I did witness a number of other vehicles having problems. For example, the garbage truck came up behind me as I made my final turn towards home. I was creeping along and made the turn fine, but could feel the tires slipping ever so slightly. Meanwhile, the garbage truck was gaining on me quite rapidly. Well he was until he made the turn, but even as he turned, the truck didn't. He went right on into the ditch.

Luckily it wasn't a steep ditch and he must have not gotten stuck, since he was out in short order. Even so, he had not learned and was soon coming up behind me again. By now, I had reached a  road that leads into another small town. The highway here was covered in about four to six inches of wet, sticky snow, on top of ice. I felt it pulling me all over the road, and even thought I may need to use four wheel drive to get through, but slow and steady did the trick, and I soon had myself back under full control and plowing through the mess.

As I looked up, I seen the garbage truck was now almost on my backside. Then, I thought he slowed and started to turn toward the other town. I looked up again to see he had indeed left the highway, but his headlights were still facing me. Then another gust of wind and he was out of site. A little while later, here he comes again, only now with only one headlight shining through the snow. He must have slid off the road when he hit the deep, wet, sticky snow, and hit something to put out a headlight. I'm guessing it was the sign for the town I mentioned.

You would think, after going off the road twice, you would begin to understand the need to slow down. Nope, not this guy. He was soon coming up behind me again. About the time he was within one hundred feet of my tail, I hit a patch of very dense blowing snow. The road wasn't any worse here than anyplace else, but visibility was ten feet or less. I could not see him at all, and was a bit concerned that if he continued at his last speed, he would soon be right up on me, and with the slick ice, unable to slow by the time he could make out my lights through the dense blowing snow.

But my concern was unwarranted, he never gained on me. In fact, when I got close to home, the wind let up a bit and visibility cleared to about a quarter mile or better, and there was no one behind me. I had slowed even more as I was driving near blind, but the garbage truck never gained, and had in fact vanished from sight. The ground rises a little as I get home, and I could see quite a ways back, but there was no sign of any headlights or the flashing yellow light on top of the cab. I can only assume he went off the road yet again, only this time the ditches are steep and he would not have been able to drive back out. Luckily, they are not real steep, so there would have been little chance of a roll over, but one never knows. A short time after I pulled into the driveway, the county plow came by, and if the garbage truck had needed assistance, he would have called for it.

So, I didn't attempt to go back to see if he had went off the road, or just turned off and giving up trying to get into tow to pick up trash. I didn't see any sense in putting another vehicle out on the roads, and taking the chance of one more person going off the road, so I had a light lunch and then took a much needed nap.