Friday, December 19, 2008

Snowmageddon indeed.

Well.

Today the snow fell. And it fell. And it fell. And it fell some more. It looks like a veritable wonderland outside. And I am now without my lovely 4WD SUV to manage this snow. Why you ask?

Well.

Let me tell you.

Today we woke up full of anticipation for the SNOWMAGEDDON that was supposed to be arriving. Yes, SNOWMAGEDDON. That’s what they were calling it. Well, it came but not in time for the Halton District School Board to close our school. They cancelled transportation and closed a few schools, but not ours. Apparently, it’s not safe enough for buses but its okay for teachers and parents to drive through. That doesn’t make sense to me.

But I digress.

Dave took today off. We got the girls off to school and immediately jumped into the truck to run 3 errands. We only had 3 things to get to complete our Christmas. That’s it, only 3.

We got that done, and although it took us longer than usual to navigate the roads, the stores were not crowded so it was quite lovely. We brought the paper with us and stopped in at Starbuck’s to enjoy a coffee/tea and read the paper. It was very comforting to sit there with the storm blasting away outside. Anyway, we finished there and were driving home, just minding our business when --- BOOM --- we ran right into the side of a van that went right through a stop sign. Ugh. The front end of the Explorer is totally bashed in. The grill is cracked and broken, the hood is dented and both panels on the sides at the front are bent. Our license plate was ripped in half and was embedded in the back tire of the van. When it happened, I was looking down and heard Dave say “oh no” and when I looked up I could see the side of the van getting closer and closer. I can remember thinking over and over “we’ve got to stop, we’ve got to stop” but no, we didn’t. The guy we hit was spun across the intersection to the other side. When we all got out Dave’s concern was for the driver of the other vehicle. He just kept asking if he was okay. My first reaction would have been to curse and swear. I was actually very impressed with how Dave handled it. The other guy was very apologetic but Dave just kept saying it was okay, that accidents happen. He was so great about it. My husband never fails to impress me. I’ve got a lot to learn from him. Anyway, we exchanged information and went on our way.

I wish it ended there, but it doesn’t.

We got home and shortly after it was time for Meredith to get out of school. The weather was still horrendous so Dave was going to go get her. Given that the truck was still drivable and it has 4 wheel drive and the fact that his car doesn’t have snow tires, he took the truck to go get her. On the way home, he was going to pick up her friend Sophie and bring her back here for a play. She lives on a very narrow street with deep culverts on either side. When he backed out of the driveway, he misjudged the width of the road, because it was so covered in snow, and went into the ditch. Unfortunately, he was unable to get it out of the ditch because one of the tires of the truck was totally flat. We have no idea how or when the flat tire happened. It will forever remain a mystery.

So, the truck has been towed away to be fixed, hopefully, in about a week and a half. I wasn’t even able to take pictures of it before it was whisked away, so I leave you with some photos of the snow.





In the meantime, I’m going to stay home with my cozy fireplace, a good book, my family and my trusty computer.

I hope you all have a safe and accident free weekend.

No comments: