Running Away From My Problems

And right now, my biggest problem is winter.

This has been a particularly nasty winter, in my opinion. It hasn't been nastily, unpleasantly cold for the most part (I've only needed my big down parka twice thus far), but the snow! The ice! The complete lack of foresight by Lucas County and City of Toledo officials regarding the amount of road salt they'd need!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, it's the iciest winter I can remember, and the road crews can barely be bothered to plow and salt.

Need I mention that because of this unpleasant combination, I had a spinout? I was on the freeway on my way to work one morning, and the freeway was extremely slushy. Everyone was driving very slowly and sensibly. I was in the left lane, getting ready to take the left hand exit that was coming up in a few miles. I guess one of my tires either caught in a rut or hit a patch of black ice, because I felt the car starting to skid off to the right. I thought I could bring it back under control, but I was wrong, because then the car started to spin. I spun around one and a half times exactly and landed on the right shoulder, lined up as neatly as if I'd parked there on purpose.

I have to admit I was in something resembling a stupor at that point. I did think to turn my four-way lights on while I was sitting there staring at the traffic coming towards me. Moments later, another car slid out and landed in the ditch right near me, and that was what "woke me up." "Oh, I should see if she's okay," I thought. She was, but she was stuck. She called her husband. I called work to say I'd be late, because it's kind of tricky to pull back onto the icy freeway, especially when facing the wrong way.

Luckily, a nice man driving a white van stopped to see if we needed help, and he stopped traffic so I could do a tight little 3-point turn and make my way back onto the road.

So after that terrifying experience, I think I have a little bit of PTSD regarding icy roads now. And of course all the ice and snow happens to be falling during rush hour this year. Two of my co-workers also had freeway spinouts recently. One landed safely on the shoulder like I did, and the other spun into the median and wound up on the other side of the freeway. Neither were hurt, both were terrified.

And it keeps snowing, and they keep NOT salting the roads. My two co-workers have the option of working from home on the nasty days; the company issues laptops to its permanent employees. Contract employees like me, alas, have no such recourse.

So yes, winter has been particularly nasty to me this year, which brings me to the running away from problems thing. Next week, thanks to a generous subsidy from my in-laws, Casey and I get a few days in Florida. At Disney World, no less! Woot!

I mean, running away isn't cowardly if I have to come back a few days later, right?