Winter

Today is the first of several expected days of freezing rain or snow here in central Texas. The roads on the way to work (when work decided it was a normal working day), and, on the way home two hours later (when work decided road conditions were going to get much worse, which they didn't, thereby wasting several hours of productivity, and who knows how many more when one is directed to "work at home"), reminded me of what Wisconsin *should* have looked like when I went home for Christmas. Wisconsin severely disappointed me and I had to drive to Minneapolis to find any signs of winter. Today in Austin, we had piles of slush on the side of the road and between tire tracks on the highways. Really, Wisconsin should have looked worse than this did. No precipitation this afternoon, so I went downtown to work during happy hour. On the way back, right before my exit, cars were slipping and sliding all over the place on an overpass bridge. I, of course, maintained my cool and glided straight through to my exit with no damage done. Stupid Texans.

I haven't managed to put the "University of Wisconsin" decal I bought over Christmas on my back windshield yet, but I really ought to tomorrow morning before I drive anywhere--to show everyone that I know what I'm doing. Today has reminded me of my one and only car accident*, when I was driving my mother's convertible to my former and at the time my sisters' high school. We were going down the small hill just north of the Beltline on Gammon Road right before Odana, at less than 10 mph, in very icy conditions... there were a hundred accidents that day I believe. I was able to slow down but stopping was out of the question. Realizing there was nothing I could do, and with several seconds to wait, I told my sister to "hold on" and in bumper car fashion we collided with the car in front of us stopped at the stop light. Someone will have to remind me which sister was in the car, because while I thought I was taking a certain sister to gymnastics practice, it's the other non-gymnastics sister I thought was in the car at the time.

*"Car accident" in this entry is defined as an accident involving more than one car. I have had my share of car accidents involving just my own car, and they were both really stupid.