Monday, December 28, 2009

Icccee

Driving in ice is no fun.

Especially in Texas, where they don't sand/salt the roads until after a major problem.

At work last Thursday I had the opportunity to witness an entire winter storm/blizzard through our beautiful new windows. The storm passed before I left for home, but the snow and ice had already been sticking to the roads for several hours. When I got to my car in the parking lot, I first had to borrow a window scraper from a nurse from Colorado, because my Texas ice scraper apparantly didn't stand a chance against this particular brand of stuck ice. After my windows were de-iced, I slooowwly made my way out of the parking lot and onto the main road before the freeway.

As I was pulling up to the stop-light before turning onto the freeway, I attempted to stop. Attempted being the key word. I pressed the breaks, pumped the breaks, slammed the breaks.... nothing. I just thought, "I'm going to hit that car in front of me." And that's exactly what happened. My first real accident.

The guy I hit pulled across the intersection and then walked back to my car. I attempted (note that verb again) to step out of my car to talk to the guy and assess the damage on my car. However, I soon realized the ground was too icey to even stand up in that area. The guy I hit said there was no damage to his car (he had an SUV with a metal bumper), and also motioned for me not to try to stand (I must have looked unstable). I asked him if I had damage, and he said my headlight & bumper were cracked. (After I got home 1.5 hours later, I checked myself and he was right... also the hood is bent). So we didn't exchange insurance information since I was obviously at fault.

I slowwlly turned onto the freeway access road and continued home. I have to say, that was probably the most terrifying 90 minutes of my life. Nothing like driving an hour and a half in icey conditions after just experiencing first hand what it feels like to be out of control on said icey roads.

But I survived!!

Now to figure out what to do with my car...