Trapped between ice and a hard place...

Hilly, and/or curving, roads that are solid sheets of ice are perfect representations of my biggest nightmares.

Going slower than normal, and being careful (and being able to pull out of a minor skid), just aren't enough, especially on the hills. If your brakes won't keep your car stopped, all you can do is accelerate down the hill, without adequate control, and hope like hell you hit better traction before you run into real trouble.

You can't count on being careful to protect you without some additional precautions.

Bring along some rock salt, and you won't be trapped for too long in a small space. Bring along tire chains, and, if you have a chance, you can probably avoid much of the difficulties.

Which is an object lesson to me; as soon as I can leave my apartment, I'm going out to get some chains, and probably a bag of rock salt, if I can find it.

But right now, I can't leave my apartment. You see, I have two choices. The small, semi-scary-when-iced hill, and the big, long, "you've got to be frickin' kidding me" hill. The semi-scary one is one I could probably get through, assuming I can

1) thread a needle through the two vehicles that are already stuck there - certainly easily possible, if the roads were dry and
2) not hit a patch of ice that locks my front tires (front wheel drive) in place.

But I'm not going to chance it. I called in sick to work after a stress-induced headache kept me from sleeping most of last night (two close calls; one would merely have required AAA; the second required a very carefully turnaround and an alternate route selection to avoid a downhill ice rink). I don't know if we'll achieve a thaw today; I'm not even sure if we'll have a thaw by early tomorrow. Late tomorrow, they're predicting mid-40s for the high. Also snow... but I can hope that it's going to be flurries.

Trapped between ice and a hard place...

Hilly, and/or curving, roads that are solid sheets of ice are perfect representations of my biggest nightmares.

Going slower than normal, and being careful (and being able to pull out of a minor skid), just aren't enough, especially on the hills. If your brakes won't keep your car stopped, all you can do is accelerate down the hill, without adequate control, and hope like hell you hit better traction before you run into real trouble.

You can't count on being careful to protect you without some additional precautions.

Bring along some rock salt, and you won't be trapped for too long in a small space. Bring along tire chains, and, if you have a chance, you can probably avoid much of the difficulties.

Which is an object lesson to me; as soon as I can leave my apartment, I'm going out to get some chains, and probably a bag of rock salt, if I can find it.

But right now, I can't leave my apartment. You see, I have two choices. The small, semi-scary-when-iced hill, and the big, long, "you've got to be frickin' kidding me" hill. The semi-scary one is one I could probably get through, assuming I can

1) thread a needle through the two vehicles that are already stuck there - certainly easily possible, if the roads were dry and
2) not hit a patch of ice that locks my front tires (front wheel drive) in place.

But I'm not going to chance it. I called in sick to work after a stress-induced headache kept me from sleeping most of last night (two close calls; one would merely have required AAA; the second required a very carefully turnaround and an alternate route selection to avoid a downhill ice rink). I don't know if we'll achieve a thaw today; I'm not even sure if we'll have a thaw by early tomorrow. Late tomorrow, they're predicting mid-40s for the high. Also snow... but I can hope that it's going to be flurries.