Erieversible

A week or so ago when I drove home to Erie from Buffalo I passed three vehicles off the road, in the snow, awaiting tows.

Two days ago, making the same drive, I saw three vehicles in the same predicament.

Today I left Erie this morning, rather than late afternoon, due to the weather forecast.  Want to guess how many vehicles had strayed off the road and were well and truly stuck?  

Is there a natural law at play here?

Anyway, safely tucked up at the apartment in Buffalo, watching the football.  See, I’m turning into a proper American!  :-)

Okay, for many of you this isn’t exactly news.  Or new.  Or exciting.  Or anything except a nuisance.  However, driving back from Buffalo to Erie this afternoon was the worst conditions I’ve driven in for some time.  Maybe ever!  That’s not to say it was really, really bad, just that it was worse than anything I’ve done before.  I’m sure I’ll drive in worse before Spring gets here.

Anyway, some observations.

Some drivers seem to have invisible tow-ropes to help with the bad weather.  There can be no other reason for what I saw today.  I don’t think, in all the interstate driving I’ve done since arriving here, I have ever seen cars as close, bumper to bumper, at speed.

Some drivers see far worse weather in the distance (like, Alaska) and drive for those conditions, rather than the conditions where they actually are in the world.

On the journey back I saw 3 vehicles in the grassy (snowy) dip between the carriageways.  One car, one small van and one massive trailer rig.  I presume all these were driven by people with far more experience driving in snow than I have.  Were they just more stupid than I was?  Maybe.  However, my theory would be that they were all victims of drivers like the steaming eejit that pulled out sharply in front of me, without warning, and had me braking far too strongly for the conditions.  So, folks, I hope you soon had someone to pull you out of trouble and back onto the road, and I hope the brainless twonks that probably caused most of the chaos get their just desserts.  Somewhere.  Sometime.  Soon.

Another goodbye.  More time apart.  It was hard in June, it feels even harder this time.  Which is silly, because it is much less of a goodbye.  Hubby will be in Buffalo during the week, but he will be home on weekends (weather permitting) and we can talk on the phone and email.  This time there won’t be a five hour time difference to work around and we won’t have to use Skype to call each other.  All in all it will be much easier for everyone.

But it still feels sad and upsetting.  We are a close family and we aren’t used to being apart from one another, I suppose.  And I find it rather stressful being wholly responsible for the kids.  They both need lots of time and attention, not to mention loads of taxi service. 

It should only be a short time, though.  By early January we should all be together in our own house.  Fingers crossed!  We only need everything to slot neatly into place with all the lawyers, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, banks, etc.  How hard can it be?