The Trick is to Follow the Bus

I was late for work this morning. It is difficult to get to work on time with 3 1/2 feet of snow on the ground. Fortunately, my son, Steven, shoveled our driveway. Unfortunately, after he did so, the snow plow came down our small, side street again, piling another two feet of snow behind my car. He came back and shoveled away the same snow from an hour ago. Getting the car out of the driveway necessitated the technique of “rocking”…stepping on the gas all the way in “drive” and the car rocks forward three inches…quickly stepping on the gas as the car rocks backward four inches…repeat, repeat, repeat until the car is free from the driveway and in the middle of the snow covered road, (and my fresh, hot cup of tea has sloshed out of the cup, all over the floor mat in my car.)

I inched down the middle of our street, slip sliding away here and there, but generally staying in the street. Fortunately, no car came in the opposite direction as I am sure we would have both ended up in the snowbanks on the side of the road. At the end of our street, I had to practice another snow driving trick…speeding up way before a hill in order to have the speed and the traction to get to the top of the hill without sliding down backwards. This can only be done by an experienced snowy hill driver because one must also be able to stop at the apex of the hill in order to look for traffic coming in both directions.

Once safely at the top of the hill, I turned and joined the cars on the main street, usually a street plowed well enough to get to work without further delays. On this very windy day, however, the main street was littered with snow drifts and snow piles where they are generally least expected…in the middle of the road! I unsafely drove for a mile or two, dangerously plowing through the snow and frantically turning my wheel against a skid in order to set the car right on the street again. Then I unexpectedly learned “the trick”…I started to follow a bus! Most drivers hate to follow buses because they make a lot of stops, but in the frigid weather and with 6 feet of plowed snow covering the sidewalks, not a lot of people were waiting at the bus stops and the bus kept driving through. Quietly, lurking in the rear shadow of the bus, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that IT plowed through the snow, making a safe path for me. Traveling along behind the bus, I giggled at myself and my discovery! And because where I work is on a bus line, I was able to turn off into my agency’s parking lot without further safety concerns.

I will just have to wait for a bus going in the other direction so I can find my way home safely…

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