Slip sliding away
Nov. 22nd, 2011 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladeanNow that I'm over the excitement of my clean sidewalk, I want to back up and talk about the weekend. It was not one of our hectic ones. I had a sleepy conversation with David on Saturday morning and ascertained that we might overlap at the Minn-Stf meeting but probably not otherwise. Eric came over in the early afternoon. The forecast snow had begun by then and changed to fluff from pellets at some point while we were out. The back end of the car slid a bit when Eric pulled out, and he reverted to his winter driving experience before anti-lock brakes existed a bit later on and tried pumpking the brakes, but he had left so much space to stop that nothing awful happened. The roads were pretty slick, but manageable. Nobody was driving like an idiot, nobody at all. I love Minnesotans when I'm not wondering why so many of them vote for Michele Bachmann.
We had lunch at Pho Tau Bay, discovering that their vegetarian pho comes in a much larger bowl with more of everything than it does in the evenings; or perhaps they have just changed their presentation. We'll have to see. It was lovely, in any case.
Then we drove to the Minn-Stf meeting, right near the Linden Hills Coop. We went around Lake Calhoun, which was still unfrozen, dark gray, and very choppy. The late-fall landscape, scattered with rich brown oaks still holding their leaves, and eerily red euonymous bushes, and golden dry grasses, all with snow, was beautiful. You could not see the opposite shore of the lake through the falling snow and the mist. At Dean and Laura's, Eric participated in a Board meeting (also attended by the usual suspects and by Sarafina, the very old cat) while Laura consulted me about how to make a vegan lentil soup. Eric then proposed that we go off and do some chores we needed to deal with at his place, planning to return in time for dinner. The chores went well.
The drive home seemed to be going fine, but then we came over a slight rise and stared down at where Cedar Lake Parkway meets Dean Parkway. There's a stop sign at the bottom of a short, steep hill, and, Dean Parkway being a big one-way loop, you have to turn right. The hill was smoothly, utterly iced over. Nobody had sanded or salted it, or even, apparently, driven on it recently. We slid through the stop sign, brakes rattling the way they do, and Eric almost made the turn. But Dean Parkway is narrow, and the left front wheel went over the curb. A helpful resident or inquisitive bystander came up while Eric was looking at the tire, saying that he had seen sparks when the wheel hit the curb, but we had really better get out of this location before somebody else came over that hill. Ahead of us in a parking pull-out, two sets of people whose cars had apparently hit one another were conferring in the pelting ice that had taken over from the fluffy snow again. Eric said the tire was fine and wasn't flat, and we could look at it again elsewhere. My first inane remark when we came to a stop had been, "I want to go home." Now we had a slightly less juvenile discussion. Eric was sad to miss the rest of the Minn-Stf meeting, and I was sorry Laura had gone to the trouble of making a vegetarian soup for, possibly, just me, that I wouldn't even be eating. I was trying to come around to the idea that it would be okay to drive as far as the meeting when Eric remembered that we had a nice flat route home from Dean Parkway, but that Dean and Laura's neighborhood was pretty hilly.
We stopped at the Java for dinner, thus getting lentil soup anyway but not feeling any better about Laura's wasted effort. The Java buffet was just the thing, though. The server, who has been there since the 1970's when the Minn-Stf frisbee players used to have dinner there after our games, told us that it ordinarily takes her about twenty minutes to get to work, but today it took an hour. She had gone to see the Twilight movie with her daughter, without checking the weather forecast. It was a mild cloudy autumn day when she went in to the theater, and there were two inches of snow when she came out. Then we went very carefully back to my house. Blaisdell might have been salted by then, or might just have had its ice worn away by traffic; but the road conditions were still quite bad.
Eric and I read peacefully, sometimes chivvied by cats. David and Lydy had gone to see a local roller derby match. I heard them come home later, but was too sleepy to get up and say hello.
Sunday morning was sunny and the snow blinding. We drove cautiously to the Rainbow at 27th and Lake to accomplish a couple of errands put off from earlier; then Eric talked me into going to the Hard Times for brunch. I don't usually need any persuasion to do this but was rattled by the icy adventure of the day before, mild though it had been. He pointed out that we could get there on major surface streets with no hills, which must in any case surely have been salted by now. They had been, too. The Hard Times was about as crowded as I've seen it. We had biscuits and gravy with added protein and vegetables -- tofu for me, tempeh for Eric, broccoli for both. We ended up talking about short stories, with the background of a young woman exclaiming, "He just TEXTED me! I cannot BELIEVE this!" and other personal details. I'm sure Eric's and my conversation was also clearly audible to our neighbors, but it was probably less riveting.
We'd planned to go to Trader Joe's, but realized in time that it was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. My family and David's are doing Thanksgiving on Sunday this year because the day itself is my mother-in-law's birthday, so I wasn't as attuned to the details as I usually am.
So we came home and parted, Eric to use the wireless for a while and then take the bus home, and I to do the grocery order, glare at my short stories, cosset my cat, and watch reruns of "30 Rock" with Raphael. I also cornered David and Lydy and heard a little about the roller derby match.
I hope none of you has slid through any stop signs recently.
Pamela
We had lunch at Pho Tau Bay, discovering that their vegetarian pho comes in a much larger bowl with more of everything than it does in the evenings; or perhaps they have just changed their presentation. We'll have to see. It was lovely, in any case.
Then we drove to the Minn-Stf meeting, right near the Linden Hills Coop. We went around Lake Calhoun, which was still unfrozen, dark gray, and very choppy. The late-fall landscape, scattered with rich brown oaks still holding their leaves, and eerily red euonymous bushes, and golden dry grasses, all with snow, was beautiful. You could not see the opposite shore of the lake through the falling snow and the mist. At Dean and Laura's, Eric participated in a Board meeting (also attended by the usual suspects and by Sarafina, the very old cat) while Laura consulted me about how to make a vegan lentil soup. Eric then proposed that we go off and do some chores we needed to deal with at his place, planning to return in time for dinner. The chores went well.
The drive home seemed to be going fine, but then we came over a slight rise and stared down at where Cedar Lake Parkway meets Dean Parkway. There's a stop sign at the bottom of a short, steep hill, and, Dean Parkway being a big one-way loop, you have to turn right. The hill was smoothly, utterly iced over. Nobody had sanded or salted it, or even, apparently, driven on it recently. We slid through the stop sign, brakes rattling the way they do, and Eric almost made the turn. But Dean Parkway is narrow, and the left front wheel went over the curb. A helpful resident or inquisitive bystander came up while Eric was looking at the tire, saying that he had seen sparks when the wheel hit the curb, but we had really better get out of this location before somebody else came over that hill. Ahead of us in a parking pull-out, two sets of people whose cars had apparently hit one another were conferring in the pelting ice that had taken over from the fluffy snow again. Eric said the tire was fine and wasn't flat, and we could look at it again elsewhere. My first inane remark when we came to a stop had been, "I want to go home." Now we had a slightly less juvenile discussion. Eric was sad to miss the rest of the Minn-Stf meeting, and I was sorry Laura had gone to the trouble of making a vegetarian soup for, possibly, just me, that I wouldn't even be eating. I was trying to come around to the idea that it would be okay to drive as far as the meeting when Eric remembered that we had a nice flat route home from Dean Parkway, but that Dean and Laura's neighborhood was pretty hilly.
We stopped at the Java for dinner, thus getting lentil soup anyway but not feeling any better about Laura's wasted effort. The Java buffet was just the thing, though. The server, who has been there since the 1970's when the Minn-Stf frisbee players used to have dinner there after our games, told us that it ordinarily takes her about twenty minutes to get to work, but today it took an hour. She had gone to see the Twilight movie with her daughter, without checking the weather forecast. It was a mild cloudy autumn day when she went in to the theater, and there were two inches of snow when she came out. Then we went very carefully back to my house. Blaisdell might have been salted by then, or might just have had its ice worn away by traffic; but the road conditions were still quite bad.
Eric and I read peacefully, sometimes chivvied by cats. David and Lydy had gone to see a local roller derby match. I heard them come home later, but was too sleepy to get up and say hello.
Sunday morning was sunny and the snow blinding. We drove cautiously to the Rainbow at 27th and Lake to accomplish a couple of errands put off from earlier; then Eric talked me into going to the Hard Times for brunch. I don't usually need any persuasion to do this but was rattled by the icy adventure of the day before, mild though it had been. He pointed out that we could get there on major surface streets with no hills, which must in any case surely have been salted by now. They had been, too. The Hard Times was about as crowded as I've seen it. We had biscuits and gravy with added protein and vegetables -- tofu for me, tempeh for Eric, broccoli for both. We ended up talking about short stories, with the background of a young woman exclaiming, "He just TEXTED me! I cannot BELIEVE this!" and other personal details. I'm sure Eric's and my conversation was also clearly audible to our neighbors, but it was probably less riveting.
We'd planned to go to Trader Joe's, but realized in time that it was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. My family and David's are doing Thanksgiving on Sunday this year because the day itself is my mother-in-law's birthday, so I wasn't as attuned to the details as I usually am.
So we came home and parted, Eric to use the wireless for a while and then take the bus home, and I to do the grocery order, glare at my short stories, cosset my cat, and watch reruns of "30 Rock" with Raphael. I also cornered David and Lydy and heard a little about the roller derby match.
I hope none of you has slid through any stop signs recently.
Pamela
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no subject
Date: 2011-11-22 11:27 pm (UTC)Man, I feel for Eric. I think the last time I drove in very heavy snow was 1998 in New Mexico, and that car definitely didn't have ABS. (I also learned how to drive on a stick shift, so I am one of those people who can't ever brake with their left foot.)
no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:35 pm (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-22 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:36 pm (UTC)I had meant to call and say we weren't coming back, but was too rattled.
P.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-22 11:49 pm (UTC)Hee!
no subject
Date: 2011-11-23 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-23 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:47 pm (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-23 12:37 am (UTC)Hmm. Looks like I've gotten really bad at this cheering and reassuring thing lately.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:48 pm (UTC)Possibly you have been working overtime on this cheering and reassuring thing and deserve a break.
P.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-23 01:24 am (UTC)Thus ended the rant for today.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:49 pm (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-23 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-23 06:55 am (UTC)No sliding through stop signs for me, recently or anytime soon; I was going to drive to our family Thanksgiving but my mother's partner got nervous about having a relatively new driver behind the wheel, so he's paying for a car service instead.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:50 pm (UTC)Holiday weekends are a bit potentially nerve-wracking for driving, but I bet you'd have done fine.
P.
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Date: 2011-11-24 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-26 06:50 pm (UTC)P.
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Date: 2011-11-27 04:29 am (UTC)