SheSue Experience

Arctic Blast 2008 has hit the Pacific Northwest. I’m not sure why they had to give it a name. I mean it’s just a storm. Some snow, wind and icy temperatures. To me giving it a name just sets panic in people’s minds. I do admit that it hasn’t been this cold since 1990 and the cold is expected to last more than a week which is pretty unusual. And it’s snowed for the past three years in a row (I mean down to sea level snow) which is also unusual. Is global warming still around? Here is a picture of my backyard earlier today. Tomorrow should be fun. It snowed most of the day, warming enough to create slush on the main routes. Tonight it’s supposed to drop down into the teens. Guess what that means for the morning!

It’s actually more common in Portland to have ice storms. We are due, but I don’t want to jinx anything.
Several years ago I was driving home on the eve of an ice storm. I figured I had beat it, I was cruising along just fine. I lived out in the country then. The ditches along side the roads were about 3 feet deep. Seriously, I have seen cars on their sides in these ditches and you can only see half the car sticking out.

So I am cruising home. It is night and dark. I am coming around a corner and hit ice. Now let’s look at what the experts tell you to do if you hit a patch of ice.

• First you are warned to drive slowly in the first place.
• Keep a safe distance between you and the car in front of you.
• If you have an older car, steer in the direction of the skid and pump the brakes.
• If you have a newer car, steer in the direction you want to go and keep your foot on the brake.

Here is what happens. When you hit the ice, it’s like you’re in an automatic car wash when the track takes a hold of your car to guide it through the washer. You have absolutely no control. The only thing I remember thinking was about those cars in the ditch. I was waiting to flip over. But somebody was watching out for me that night. I managed to find a driveway. In fact it was a double driveway. I took out a street sign, spun around and managed to bump up against the berm that divided the two driveways. My car didn’t even stall. After waiting for my heart to quit beating in my ears, I was able to drive home. I was only about 2 miles from home. The only damage to my car was I took off a piece of trim when I hit the street sign. Yes, I was lucky.

The point is, you really don’t have time to think of anything. This whole process probably took all of 15 seconds. Tomorrow I will have chains on and will be driving very slow. Most of my driving is on main roads which will hopefully be sanded. The video is of 2 years ago in Portland. Do you think any of these drivers were thinking of which way to turn and how to brake.