Driving on Ice.

This morning I had an appointment about 5 minutes from my house at 7:30 am.  I left at 7:00 am. While I do tend to be the person who is early, when the appointment is so early in the morning, I am more than happy to be just on time. I could have left my house 5-10 minutes early and be fine on a normal day. But I left at 7:00 am because over night we received a thick coating of ice on our world in Waco, Texas. This layerof ice kept me up most of the night by the way. I love sleeping in the rain, its soothing. Ice however was a constant pounding on my windows that was far from soothing. So I got up and headed out the door far sooner than I would have on a typical day.

I was called the day before by the place where my appointment was. They said they would not close due to the weather but wanted to make sure I would be coming. I scoffed thinking it probably would be no big deal. I would drive carefully and be there with no trouble. I have driven in ice before and frankly now I have a better car than I did then.

Challenge #1. Get out of the driveway. I stepped outside of the garage to test the driveway. Its not a steep hill but I wanted to know what the enemy was and how slick the hill I was coming down would be. Risk assessed, there are no cars parked across the street so the worst case scenario, I slide down and bump the curb. I proceeded with caution and transitioned from my driveway to the street which was a solid sheet of ice. I could have chosen to call it and give in. To say that it looks to scary and dangerous and I would have been right. But I also would have never known that I cold do it and would do it with complete success and no problem.

Challenge #2. Signal lights. Every road I drove on was a solid sheet of ice. I had to get to major roads before I would find any that had been dusted by sand. I drove about 20 mph on average and used my brain but I also knew that signal lights could mean real danger. I never knew as I approached red lights if I would be able to stop or if the light would change just in time. I also never knew what car would be coming the other direction at the intersection. Each one was a risk but I did what I could do and anxiously awaited the results. I was very fortunate that a lot of the lights changed with perfect timing to my arrival. There were a couple of places where I needed to stop and I slowly did so as I reached that intersection. Sometimes it was no big deal at all. Then there were times where the ice had other plans. Had I freaked out things could have ended very differently. Instead I continued to slowly apply the break and aimed for the direction that would leave the least damage. Sometimes life is like that. We cant control the lights or the driving abilities of the cars coming towards us but if we keep our heads on straight and face whatever is in front of us it will work out. Even if we bump some curbs.

Challenge #3. Road blocks. I had my route planned carefully. Direct with no bridges or overpasses. And then the left turn I planned on making was blocked by a police officer saying no way. What I forgot, or at least just didn’t think about is that service road is extremely steep and flat roads covered in ice with no traction are hard enough but going up a steep one was impossible. We face our mountains and hills with courage and tenacity but sometimes we have to decide if mountains are worth climbing. The roads that lead us down to places we don’t want to be are often steep with little to no traction. And some of us tend to be stubborn and decided to try to climb those hills anyway. We bypass warning signs and ignore them. We think surely that warning is not for me or that those people don’t know what they are talking about. And of course that makes sense. Why would a police officer in an SUV know if this steep road is passable. What does he know? He doesn’t know me and my car. So I didn’t try to bypass him, I decided to trust his authority and concern for my safety.

Challenge #4. Decisions. Plan B- come up from behind. Once the 5 cars in front of me in the turn lane decide what to do and get out of my way, do I make a U-turn and drive almost all the way back to my house for a re-route on the treacherous road that I just conquered? Or do I take the road ahead which will be less out of the way and just bring me to me destination from the back. That one made far more sense to me. I am all about getting from point A to Point B in the most direct route possible. But it was a pretty steep route itself. Could I make it? Now let me say I am all about taking the road less traveled. I definitely considered it. I watched cars come down the hill. And by cars I mean large trucks. And by come down I mean slide down. I think we have a lot of heartaches and failures in our lives that could be prevented if we learned from our past mistakes and mistakes of others. I knew that the less time I spent on the road the less chance I had of hurting my car. But I also knew that there was a significant chance that I would not make it up the hill and I didn’t really know where I would end up at that point.

Challenge #5. More decisions. I took the long way. I had some slips and slides that evoked colorful language and anxiety but I recognized that this was the safer route. After all I left early and my goal was to get to my destination safely not quickly. A few turns later, I was so close to my destination. I came to a Y in the road. If I went to the left I would go directly to my destination. To the left is where most of the cars went. But there were a lot of cars on that route and as I looked ahead I saw things weren’t going well. Cars were facing every direction. So I went right. I didn’t know what that would have for me. It looked worse and had been a dangerous sight on the last freeze we had that was nowhere near this bad. There was no one on that road but it wasn’t blocked. As I drove slowly down the road a handful of cars followed behind me. This route looked worse but with slow cautious driving I had no problems at all. I took the road less traveled and it showed to be the best one. My head argued with itself. I knew it was very dangerous in the last freeze and seemingly every other person on the road thought it was the worst option but I decided to take it anyway and am glad that I did.

Challenge #6. The unseen challenge. Success! I made it to my destination. I parked away from the three other cars in the giant parking lot because my primary concern was the safety of my beautiful new car. Of course an iced over parking lot that you drive on is also going to be the iced over parking lot that you then have to walk on. Now I use the term walk very loosely. I was determined though because I had come too far without incident to have a problem now. I would not eat it in the parking lot! I am sure I looked ridiculous but that didn’t matter to me too much. What mattered was not inuring myself. I made it to my appointment just a little late, and I was fine with that! I sat down to do paperwork and texted friends to tell them to stay home. The funny thing was I did care a little bit if anyone saw me, just not enough to do things differently. I walked slowly the five steps that I did take. Then I just gave in and “skated.” The child in me would have done that anyway for fun. How often would things turn out different . . . better . . . if we would let that carefree child out on occasion?

Then I realized I have to get back home. I began to contemplate and plan the best routes. I thought about the steep driveway I came down and wondered how I would get up and enter my garage without taking out the front of my house. Try as I might I cant change who I am. I am a planner. A classic Type A. I am learning though, there is nothing wrong with that. We need all kinds of people in our world. But balance in that would be helpful. To plan and not worry. That is the goal.

Challenge #7. On the road again. I decided against going around the world and took the direct route home. This meant going over a huge bridge but I knew for sure it would be one of the first things sanded this morning and by 8:30 am it should be long done. Well you cant always anticipate what others see as priorities because guess what vehicle was right in front of me. The sand truck. That said I had fresh sand to drive on. Despite the thick layer of ice being right below me the sand gave me the traction I needed to make it safely across at a snails pace. We don’t live this life as an island as much as I would like to. There are other people in our worlds that have roles to play. Some large and some smaller. What is hard for some of us, other than this entire concept is that this is where we lose a piece of our control. So we control what we can and hopefully have our hands loose enough to be okay with the things that slip through. Because even if its not far enough in advance for us, it just needs to happen on time. Whatever that thing is, it will be okay.

*Challenge #8. Back on neighborhood roads the sun was starting to come out. Places in the road with direct sunlight were for the most part completely thawed despite the 20 degree temperatures. But on one block of road you could have still 2-3 places were threes lined the streets and provided enough shade to keep that ice solid and dangerous.

Challenge #9. Watch where your wheels are. As I neared my home I traveled on a road that didn’t only have entire chunks of road, all the way across frozen but the smaller trees that shaded 1-3 feet of the sides of the road. I could have three of my wheels on sun shiny, melted road but if just one of my tires got to the ice, I could lose control just as easily.

Challenge #10. The driveway. As I drove home observing the suns effect on the ice I just knew my driveway would be no problem. I have zero shade on the front of my yard. As I turned the corner I opened the garage door and saw the solid ice that my driveway was. Still! I took a deep breath, aimed for the opening and started up. It took decent pressure on the accelerator to get up but I needed to be slow to come into the garage without trouble. It was a fine line that I walked; or drove but with patient persistence my car and myself were both back safely in my home.