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...and for once, it *doesn't* involve another car!
Most of you know that it's seriously cold here in Pennsylvania. Yesterday morning, nearly all of the schools were closed, as were many businesses. No wonder, since it was in single digits, and several roads weren't cleared. Yet, once I got past the city limits, the roads are perfectly clear. Usually, it's the reverse. Pittsburgh's salt and plow trucks are mythical creatures. 15 years of working in and around the city--I've never seen one!
Anyway, getting to work was interesting. There were several accidents, usually caused by black ice. I nearly ended up in one myself. I got down the seriously steep hill OK; I got through the 90-degree bend at the bottom--where people usually slide off, and into the trees OK. What I wasn't counting on, was right after that 90-degree bend, I'd hit some black ice...and keep going forward
No way to stop, or even steer, I somehow managed to keep the car straight. Because I was approaching a stop sign (with a blind corner to the left), I started laying on the horn, hoping to warn people that I couldn't stop...and hoping that someone wasn't going to turn right. If they did, they'd have to "swing wide" (into my lane), to make the corner.
Apparently, the guy heard me, and decided to wait. Had he not, not only would I have hit him head on, but we both would have slid down the rest of the hill..possibly into oncoming traffic, and possibly into the wall at the 90-degree corner at the bottom
Most of you know that it's seriously cold here in Pennsylvania. Yesterday morning, nearly all of the schools were closed, as were many businesses. No wonder, since it was in single digits, and several roads weren't cleared. Yet, once I got past the city limits, the roads are perfectly clear. Usually, it's the reverse. Pittsburgh's salt and plow trucks are mythical creatures. 15 years of working in and around the city--I've never seen one!
Anyway, getting to work was interesting. There were several accidents, usually caused by black ice. I nearly ended up in one myself. I got down the seriously steep hill OK; I got through the 90-degree bend at the bottom--where people usually slide off, and into the trees OK. What I wasn't counting on, was right after that 90-degree bend, I'd hit some black ice...and keep going forward
No way to stop, or even steer, I somehow managed to keep the car straight. Because I was approaching a stop sign (with a blind corner to the left), I started laying on the horn, hoping to warn people that I couldn't stop...and hoping that someone wasn't going to turn right. If they did, they'd have to "swing wide" (into my lane), to make the corner.
Apparently, the guy heard me, and decided to wait. Had he not, not only would I have hit him head on, but we both would have slid down the rest of the hill..possibly into oncoming traffic, and possibly into the wall at the 90-degree corner at the bottom
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