February 06, 2004
Oh Sh*t
(This type of snow isn't too hard to drive in. When the road is completely covered with a white layer and frozen and severely sloped. With regular tires and 2WD, you're in trouble...)
Is the song (by Pharcyde) that comes to mind when I think back on yesterday's driving experience. I was once again surprised to find 4 inches of new snow covering everything, and the roads were once again whitened. I tried driving up the hill next to my house, and despite a constant pressure applied to the accelerator, my car slowly came to a stop. No matter how hard I could have floored it with my front tires spinning (like a car in a cartoon, just before it zooms off into a chase) , or if I tried to rock my car out of this unstable position I could not have made it up any further. I put on the hazards, and shifted into reverse. Slowly I started down the ice covered hill, and when I began to slip, I engaged into 2nd gear and gently drifted to the side of the road so that my left tires bumped into the curb. Using the curb as a rail, I made my way back to my house in reverse. If the road had been banked towards the other side of the road, I would have been in trouble.
So yes, I will buy chains this weekend when I go to the city (broke the last pair). I have to admit, the folks in Ubuyama are skilled at driving in snow-covered narrow roads. Some people drive over 40km (20 is what I drive) on the slippery roads in little pickup trucks with no problems, although they have 4WD and snowtires to help them out. If I end up living in a snowy area, then I will be driving a car with AWD and at the very least I will have some chains.
All Systems Go
Finally Higo Blog and C. Buddha's Hasty Musings are up and running and once again, fully functional after one long postless week. You may have noticed that comments were inaccessable, and that we were not updating. Well, the problem has been fixed, so feel free to rejoice once again read and leave comments as you wish. Ah, its nice to be able to post once again.