Tuesday, January 27, 2009

ice is nice

To my surprise I still have electricity. With the two to four inches of snow predicted for tonight on top of the freezing rain all day on top of the sleet from last night, I'm not sure that will continue.
This morning I thought I would put the trash container in the back of the Jeep this afternoon and drive up to the road with it for tomorrow's pick up. So this afternoon I went out to chip the ice off the windows. First I scattered salt on the walks, only to find that the freezing rain was falling so fast it had no effect. Then I went cautiously, one foot at a time, out to the Jeep (not more than fifteen feet from the house) and opened the door. The ice cracked off the handle, and more ice fell off the top of the door. I got out the ice scraper and attacked the window of that door. It was only a few degrees below freezing and the ice was about an eighth of an inch thick. It came apart easily, but it was glued to the window with water underneath. On each window the whole sheet, already cracked into parts, would fall off onto the icy ground with a musical crash. The ice on the windshield was thicker (because of the slant, I think): about a quarter inch. Much harder to crack and pry loose. Then I whacked at last night's snow/sleet frozen onto the hood until I dug down far enough to find the windshield wipers. 
It didn't take very long and wasn't very hard, because the ice on the ground was rough enough that my feet had traction, but after that I had no intention of trying to drive three-tenths of a mile and back without chains, which I don't have, and which I wouldn't take the trouble to put on just to put the garbage out. I also wrote off the idea of walking up to the mailbox. When I got back inside, my hat brim was coated with ice, but the crown, where my head heated it, was just wet.
Everything outside is shiny. Wish me luck.

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