Now is the weather of our content

In which our Hero gathers his snowbound sheep from where they have strayed

The weather has been really weird around these parts. I’m still in fall gear and not bothering to do up my coat because it’s not cold enough to require that yet. And the forecast is for more of the same clear through to next week. Which is why it was so surprising to see the great clouds explode into the great feathery flakes drifting down. Almost perfect packing snow, a little wetter than anybody would enjoy, but it just kept coming down and half melting on contact with the ground.

Except that we had to go get another family and then head back to the middle of nowhere for my cousin’s house warming. Who I’d just seen last week when I helped them move. And on the weekend at the Christmas party. But there were people returning home to the other side of the world and I have to pay my respects. So away I went.

This kind of weather is a little frustrating for me. The fact is that the road is fine. The visibility is fine. Therefore the fact that everybody is creeping and crawling at half the speed limit is just maddening. Later, off the highway, the snow had started to stick to the road, and that means that there are grooves from the tires and ridges from the untrod snow. If you’re not familiar with winter driving, Gentle Reader, this is a “gotcha” condition. Nine times out of ten, you can change lanes or turn and the snow is like fog for how little it affects you. The tenth time, it can catch your tires and spin you around.

So in the end, it was a slow drive to my cousin’s place. The last part is down a two-lane highway in nearly pitch black. That was actually interesting because normally you’d use your high-beams here but with the snow half the light was reflected back so aside from a visual spectacular, it didn’t really help on the road. I made good time till we got into the tail of a procession led by a beneficial-but-slow snow plow. So easy driving, at least.

Just as I arrived at my cousins place, they were getting a phone call that one of our aunts had gone too far and gotten their van stuck in the snow when they tried to turn around. So a couple of us grabbed shovels, hopped into one of the cars and headed out. We passed a van just down a side street so we turned around and went to investigate. And yes, the van was stuck, and yes it was another load of relatives, but they were absolutely baffled because they’d only just hung up after asking for help and here we were.

Getting them unstuck was kind of silly. Technically all he needed to do was to put the van into the lowest gear and he could drive forward, but even easier than that was the driveway thirty feet behind them and down-slope. So we talked them back, turned them around, and sent them onward while we headed further into the wild. And a little while later, we found our other stray, and my uncle apologized and explained that he didn’t have snow tires, but one of us took the wheel, and the others took my uncle in the car we’d brought and we drove home.

And this is the embarrassing part. My uncle asked me if I had all-wheel drive and I said no. Then he asked me if I had snow-tires and again I said no. So I told him that if I hadn’t been here alread I’d have missed the turn too, because truthfully I almost did the last time. And I pointed out the signs were low and covered in snow and I think that made him feel better.

But truthfully, snow-tires and all-wheel drive are certainly great tools, but really it’s just about understanding how to drive in snow. I’ve never used snow-tires. The benefit they provide is incredibly limited in an urban environment. (On a cleared road, regular all seasons will out perform snow-tires). Having just bought a car, it was a real question in my mind because there’s a question specifically about them, and some regions are considering requiring them.

(shrug) I dunno. I know that I’ve never felt the need.

Oven is 2, talking, and hilarious. Like when he laughs, and finishes with “Funny.”

Other than that, it was a pretty standard family part with the people I’ve mostly seen two times before this in the past week. I love them, I’m just not feeling very social.