Friday, December 6, 2013

An Icy Walk In My Neighborhood Dodging Falling Branches & Sliding Cars

With the outer world coated with ice I was not among those who thought it a good idea to roll the wheels of my mechanized transport anywhere today.

I opted to take an icy walking tour of my neighborhood and found myself surprised to find people risking driving on the ice, with that risk being too risky for several that my eyes witnessed.

As you can see my pool is looking particularly cool today, with its new white and turquoise color scheme.

I quickly realized walking on the ice of this Ice Storm was not as difficult as other ice storms I've walked on. And so I decided to try to walk and slide to Albertsons.

I quickly came upon the scene below, on the hill below Albertsons, with cars spinning their tires, with various levels of success, trying to get up the hill on Boca Raton Boulevard.


I learned later the white car on the right slid to that location hours previous and was abandoned by its driver. Not a good place to leave ones car. I saw several incidents of near misses as cars and trucks careened up and down the hill. The car on the far left was also stuck, but the driver was still behind the wheel. The blue car was trying to push it to no avail. Eventually a truck with two big burly guys showed up who were able to push the car enough to get it moving on its own.

As you can see, Albertsons is open, with a few people successfully managing to slide their way to the parking lot. I only saw two Albertsons checkout people checking people out. Both were dressed as if they were out in the cold, complete with stocking caps.


Leaving Albertsons I soon came upon Miss Puerto Rico. None of her co-workers were able to make it in today. Miss Puerto Rico asked if I wanted to tour her property with her, looking for ice damage. That sounded possibly entertaining, so I walked along, for awhile.


The only problem found whilst I was part of the Miss Puerto Rico inspection team was a big branch which had broken off and on to two vehicles. Neither vehicle appeared to have suffered any damage.

After I abandoned Miss Puerto Rico's inspection team I tried to open the door of my own personal mechanized transportation device, to no avail. The driver's side lock was covered with ice, with more ice sealing the door shut solid.

I was able to get the key in the passenger's side door and unlock it. But that door was also sealed shut with ice.

I then got myself a pitcher full of hot water which was able to do enough melting that I got the passenger door open and then was able to open the driver's side door by pushing from the inside.

I wanted to get my vehicle motion ready in case of an emergency need to drive somewhere. Apparently we are not scheduled to get any addition ice coverage. What we get to deal with now is continuing below freezing temperatures which will prevent much of the ice cover from melting.

I am sort of already over winter and winter has not even yet made its official arrival...

1 comment:

Steve A said...

If you are going to slide off a road, try to do it somewhere you will not broadside a police car...