A stupid decision
- artist’s rendition
Pull up a chair, friend. You’ll find no hockey tales here this week. Let me tell you instead of the day I made a stupid decision that could’ve very truly ended up hurting my family and myself.
It was yesterday, actually. I woke up to a storm warning. 18-20 inches of snow were supposed to fall between noon Friday and noon Sunday. That’s a lot of snow. That’s the most snow that I can remember since I moved to West Virginia (not that I’m bragging, Canadian friends).
At about 2:45 it started snowing. At about 3:30, my family and I decided to go down our little hill “before things got bad” to pick up a few more things at Walmart and maybe do some Christmas shopping.
We got in the car, and got to the pavement, and I thought… ooh, this is slick. We drove down the hill. Drove is generous. It was more like a controlled slide, if I’m honest. But, we made it to the bottom of the hill. We only saw the remnants of one car skidding into a guard rail.
The drive from the top of our hill to the bottom takes, on a normal day, a minute, minute and a half. We got to the bottom in about 10, and saw that things were only getting worse. I ran into the gas station, got some snack food, and got back in the car to go back up the hill.
As I attempted to turn up the hill, I realized that there was a long line of cars, not moving. So, we went back to the gas station, circled around until we saw the line up gone, and started up the hill.
The line up was gone… 500 feet further up the hill, around the bend. So, we came to a complete stop again, for about 10 minutes or so. The line up moved again. Then it came to a complete stop. Conditions were getting worse. It was harder to get the car going on the incline. I tried to keep my tires in fresh snow for traction, but there was slush turning to ice under there.
The line moved again. A serious culprit in all this was a rear-wheel drive pick up truck that couldn’t get any traction. He was getting towed. Then, a car coming the other way hit him. Great. Stop the line again, probably another 1500 feet up.
They finally, after about another ten minutes, got him out of the way. There were two vehicles in front of me who had stopped as they tried to make an inclined curve. Stopping on an incline is bad. Stopping on an inclined curve is worse. I watched as one woman got out of her car and let someone else drive it. I watched as he nearly lost it over the edge. I watched the next car do the same. The car behind me decided that instead of leaving significant space between us, he’d just get as close as he could.
We watched an F250 superduty try to put on his brakes up the road about 100 feet. His wheels stopped turning, but his vehicle didn’t stop moving. Sideways. Are we ever going to make it home?
At about this time, the boy started getting antsy. Rebecca kept him calm, but I was fairly shaking with the stress of the situation. Vehicles coming the other way were obviously having a hard time keeping controlled. Finally, it was our shot. We went 100 feet, and then one of the guys who was “helping” came up to the window. We stopped (why I stopped, I’ll never know.) We had a terrible time getting started again, but thankfully those 3-month-old all seasons kicked in. We weaved through some stopped traffic on another curve… the worst one on the hill. I told Rebecca afterward that if someone had been walking through there, I probably would’ve just laid on the horn. If we’d gotten stopped there, we wouldn’t have been able to get started again.
Graciously, God brought us to the top of the hill. I looked down the long, steep driveway on the side of the hill, with the curve, and sure enough, there was a car sideways in it. We kept on going on the main road to a clear parking area, parked the car, and got out.
I think the only other time I’ve shaken that hard was when… shoot, I don’t know that I’ve ever shaken that hard. We walked 500 feet or so down the hill, to the house and came through the door. We said a prayer of thanks, because there were about a hundred chances for a car accident, for the car to go off the road, for someone else to hurt us, or get hurt by us.
It reminded me of something my father-in-law often says. “I said to the Lord, if you’ll get me out of this one, I’ll do my best to stay out of the next one.”
The car is still parked up in the parking area off the main road. Could somebody have hit it? You know, the possibility exists. I guess I’ll find out when the snow stops. Sunday maybe? At least we’re home, together, and safe. Praise the Lord. I hope I never do anything so stupid again.
Exciting rendition. Here in Rupert I just shovelled 22″ of global warming from around my truck- just in case. It would have to be a very serious case. Otherwise, the last of our family travellers made it to his home at about 11PM last night. One at his work place, one in a hotel, and three of you home. Makes me tired.
Merry Christmas. It could be a white one.
So thankful that you are safely home!
Glad you and your clan made it home. I was skidding about dodging cars and silly drivers last night too, but was glad that my family was safe and warm at home.
lolz teh global warming is a hoax cause we gots the snooowws!
No, global warming is a hoax because scientists skewed their data to help prove it.