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So on Saturday I went in to pick up Tucker from the airport. It's just under two hours' drive in summer, about two and a half hours safe winter driving, and we'd scheduled his flight for midday so we'd have light to drive home in.
Saturday was the first real snowfall, and the first strike of deep cold. Because it was the first snowfall the ground wasn't frozen yet, and the snow fell, froze onto the roads, and then turned to iron as the temperatures dropped. This happens sometimes, where there's a literal sheet of ice and the ploughs can't get it off. You drive slow, be careful. There's no real telling where the lines are on the road, there are just alternating stripes of ice, clear asphalt, and sometimes ridgy strips which can be either the rumble strips on the side of the road or the fancy textured part of the plough but there's no way to tell which.
Driving in this requires a lot of concentration and I don't like it, but the day had cleared up by the time I was on the road so visibility was good, and there was supposed to be lots of daylight to drive home. Tiring, but fine.
The plane was delayed, and delayed, and delayed. By 4:30 or so the temperature had dropped to -10. The little airport has dropped masking requirements, so I was hanging out in the truck getting pretty cold, and the sun was going down. I ended up at a hotel where I turned the heat immediately up to 80F and made a cup of tea. By 7 the flight was cancelled; I'd been hoping the flight would come in late and we could hole up at the hotel and drive back in the morning.
I'd fed the animals already, anticipating a late day, and settled them in for the cold. I knew they'd need water in the morning, though, and extra food - everything would be frozen solid. There still isn't really enough snow to "drink" and that's not ideal anyhow, dehydration makes both consuming enough calories and keeping warm difficult, the air when it's that cold is super dry, and water is as I said mostly iron. So I was prepared for this.
The flight was rescheduled for 11 the next day, which I figured, fine, that's about as late as I want to push the animals but fine. By the time Tucker got to the airport and lined up, that flight was cancelled too, and I headed home.
The drive home was a lot. There was roughly 50 miles of solid ice, the kind where if you're going straight and holding speed you're fine but even slowing down just slightly the ABS kicked in. My truck is pretty light in the back normally anyhow, and though I got up to 90kph for very brief stretches most of the drive was done at 70 (yes, my truck's odometer is in miles and I track speed in kilometers, don't ask). The saving graces were that it was a clear sunny day and almost no one else was on the road, so I could creep along without worrying about a train of folks behind me or whether I was on the wrong side of the invisible road lines.
Halfway home Tucker called to say he'd been rebooked on a flight and could be there in a couple hours. I was in full on meltdown mode at this point, but it didn't matter that much because within an hour that flight was also cancelled.
I made it home and just decompressed: fed the fire, gave the animals nice fluffy straw and food, brought milk in to thaw for the pigs (the chiller went down at the grocery store, so I have gallons of milk) and just sat and stared for awhile, then crawled into bed. Exhausting.
It was honestly not the best weekend.
The airline Tucker was using had some sort of system outage, which is why there was such a long issue, but in general airlines seem to be less reliable lately. I guess they've crossed over from rich people travel to normal people travel, and started to erode just like anything accessible to normal people: food, housing, equipment, etc.
The plan may be to try it again this coming weekend, I'm not sure yet. In all that waiting time Tucker could almost have driven up and back, and that may be the option on the table in the future. We'll see. I am glad he wasn't driving that iced-over road at least.
Meanwhile the cold continues, down to -22C tonight. That's fingers sticking to metal and deep breaths that make you cough. Anything that was sitting on wet ground is welded there for the winter. There is sunlight, though, in the brief daylight over the snow and the night with the full moon is enormous and bright.
Saturday was the first real snowfall, and the first strike of deep cold. Because it was the first snowfall the ground wasn't frozen yet, and the snow fell, froze onto the roads, and then turned to iron as the temperatures dropped. This happens sometimes, where there's a literal sheet of ice and the ploughs can't get it off. You drive slow, be careful. There's no real telling where the lines are on the road, there are just alternating stripes of ice, clear asphalt, and sometimes ridgy strips which can be either the rumble strips on the side of the road or the fancy textured part of the plough but there's no way to tell which.
Driving in this requires a lot of concentration and I don't like it, but the day had cleared up by the time I was on the road so visibility was good, and there was supposed to be lots of daylight to drive home. Tiring, but fine.
The plane was delayed, and delayed, and delayed. By 4:30 or so the temperature had dropped to -10. The little airport has dropped masking requirements, so I was hanging out in the truck getting pretty cold, and the sun was going down. I ended up at a hotel where I turned the heat immediately up to 80F and made a cup of tea. By 7 the flight was cancelled; I'd been hoping the flight would come in late and we could hole up at the hotel and drive back in the morning.
I'd fed the animals already, anticipating a late day, and settled them in for the cold. I knew they'd need water in the morning, though, and extra food - everything would be frozen solid. There still isn't really enough snow to "drink" and that's not ideal anyhow, dehydration makes both consuming enough calories and keeping warm difficult, the air when it's that cold is super dry, and water is as I said mostly iron. So I was prepared for this.
The flight was rescheduled for 11 the next day, which I figured, fine, that's about as late as I want to push the animals but fine. By the time Tucker got to the airport and lined up, that flight was cancelled too, and I headed home.
The drive home was a lot. There was roughly 50 miles of solid ice, the kind where if you're going straight and holding speed you're fine but even slowing down just slightly the ABS kicked in. My truck is pretty light in the back normally anyhow, and though I got up to 90kph for very brief stretches most of the drive was done at 70 (yes, my truck's odometer is in miles and I track speed in kilometers, don't ask). The saving graces were that it was a clear sunny day and almost no one else was on the road, so I could creep along without worrying about a train of folks behind me or whether I was on the wrong side of the invisible road lines.
Halfway home Tucker called to say he'd been rebooked on a flight and could be there in a couple hours. I was in full on meltdown mode at this point, but it didn't matter that much because within an hour that flight was also cancelled.
I made it home and just decompressed: fed the fire, gave the animals nice fluffy straw and food, brought milk in to thaw for the pigs (the chiller went down at the grocery store, so I have gallons of milk) and just sat and stared for awhile, then crawled into bed. Exhausting.
It was honestly not the best weekend.
The airline Tucker was using had some sort of system outage, which is why there was such a long issue, but in general airlines seem to be less reliable lately. I guess they've crossed over from rich people travel to normal people travel, and started to erode just like anything accessible to normal people: food, housing, equipment, etc.
The plan may be to try it again this coming weekend, I'm not sure yet. In all that waiting time Tucker could almost have driven up and back, and that may be the option on the table in the future. We'll see. I am glad he wasn't driving that iced-over road at least.
Meanwhile the cold continues, down to -22C tonight. That's fingers sticking to metal and deep breaths that make you cough. Anything that was sitting on wet ground is welded there for the winter. There is sunlight, though, in the brief daylight over the snow and the night with the full moon is enormous and bright.
