When I walked out of the gym today, I was shocked to find my car buried under nearly an inch of snow. I hadn’t heard anything on the news about snow, so this was a surprise. I was excited about this rare occurence of a snow day in Portland, Oregon, although I was also curious if the weather forecasters were unaware of this storm or if I was just out of the loop on weather issues. Neither would surprise me. Either way, I wish I had been alerted to this weather trend earlier so I could prepare my car, and my driving skills, for the trek home. Before even leaving the parking lot, I had already managed to almost hit a nearby parked car while skidding to a halt, the type of skid that makes a thump thump noise as you hope for the best. Once I made it onto the main road, I was confronted by another issue – traffic. Ahead of me there were five or six cars scattered around in the middle of the road with emergency lights flashing. It looked like some kind of obstacle course with a ton of stalled objects to avoid. By the time I’d crossed the first intersection on my way home, I had already meandered uncontrollably over to the oncoming traffic side of the road at a speedy two miles per hour. Luckily everyone else was going so slow that I was able to correct this problem without any issues. The total trip took around 25 minutes instead of the usual three. I was happy to arrive home without any collisions or compromised mailboxes. And I don’t plan to try driving in the snow without chains again today. Unfortunately, that leaves me stuck at home alone with movies, books, the lovely local news, and a few cuddly kitties. I’m sure I’ll manage. 
