Slip Slidin' Away

This morning my 11-year-old woke me up with the news that her mom's car was stuck in ice near the lake on our road. Ah, blissful sleep.

20 minutes later (I was slow to awaken) I was pushing our minivan uphill as Shirra gunned the engine. The problem with Honda's Odyssey models is that you really _can't_ gun their engines. They're programmed so that when you put the pedal to the medal, the wheels only turn slowly, never reaching even as fast as 50 mph. Apparently this is some kind of safety measure for when you're driving on icy roads, but when you're stuck on one, it's a real disadvantage. After about 40 minutes of pushing the car after applying sand on the road, we were back home.

Not surprisingly, school had been delayed for two hours due to icy conditions. My wife found this out a bit too late, and by that time, she was stuck half-way down our long hill. Since it took so long to get the car back home, I basically had to get back into my car just a half-hour later so that I could make a second attempt down the road. It was scary going, but we eventually got to Route 32 safely, and after that the trip was a cinch.

The rest of the day was just as eventful. I managed to get both of the other kids to their schools, but Maeve's preschool was only 90 minutes, and with the errands I had to run, it felt like I had to pick her up as soon as I'd dropped her off, and then I had to turn around and head into Manhattan. I saw two students, then rushed back into New Paltz for a mandatory but fairly useless fire fighter class. Shirra, meanwhile, had a great day at the store, where business has been brisk -- in some part due to the upcoming holidays. We were both able to get our cars back home safely, with some difficulty and trepidation. We'll definitely have to call that School Closing Hotline before leaving tomorrow!