I screwed up

The presses were supposed to start at 10:30 pm in light of the weather expected.  I was supposed to get our papers by 11ish.  Even at 20 miles an hour, I’d have been done the earilest ever.

None of that happened.

The Press bldg woke me up at 12:50 am: "Are you going to come get your papers?"

Damn.

I was in a hurry and just started up the stepvan.  Cold beast.  We had gotten 6 -8 inches of snow, and the reason the presses had started early had happened at some time (and was still happening all the route this morning); freezing rain was falling and not only glazing the ice, it was adding to the already quarter inch of ice on top of the snow.  I had moved my car ice scraper to the stepvan the day before, but the ice was like armor on the front window, and the de-icer liquid that the boss had left for me iced up immeadiately after i sprayed it on.  It was 21 or 2 degrees.

It has warmed up one degree.

I cut a bare tiny hole an the ice, knowing that vehicles generally warm up better if you drive them, and drove very cautiously downtown.  Very cautiously, and thanking my lucky stars there was no traffic.  None. And that stepvan barely warmed up at all.

The boss had bought and put on a set of cable chains, and it was FUN making that big ol’ box go where I wanted it to.  I got down to the plant and no one was there.  My bundles were all flung on the dock behind the loaders, so all bundled up for the cold, I had to toss a hundred bundles of papers into the back of my stepvan.  It wasn’t fast.  I lost count when I got off the dock and into the stepvan to arrange my papers a little, but it wasn’t until the end of my run hours later, when I was short some 65 papers, eight bundles of 8, that I knew that.

Until that point, I happily drove all over my route, maveling at the ability of my stepvan, my rear wheel drive stepvan, to get around in what looked like very bad conditions.  I had no problems whatsoever, and formed a new opinion of cable chains.

I was warmly dressed, in my air force parka and a down vest, and after moving a hundred bundles and delivering the same, I was a warm cat.  Frozen rain fell all the time I was out this morning, and seems to have continued while I slept this morning.  There is nothing moving out there, so it’s nice and quiet.

I’m planning on leaving Tuesday… but if my cat sitter friend can’t get back and forth, Blacky Cat would… well…he’d starve, alright, and while he’d probably be ok, I’d suffer later for cruelly treating my cat, whether from him or from general karma.  She could stay here, if she wants, and Blacky would like that, I think, but if she can’t even get here before I plan to leave, I can’t go.

And it’s not a trade, my cat for the family and the brother I haven’t seen for decades.  The freezing temps look to last past Wednesday, but south of Salem, it’s above freezing, and there’s only a few high passes on the way south to worry about.

And then there’s Big Bear.  All the tourists are flocking up for the skiing, but trucks haven’t been able to get up there with gas, food, liqour – the essentials. Since I’m planning to get up there on Christmas Eve, in the middle of the week, I’ll probably be ok.  They got four feet of snow, the most in decades.  Southern Californians are idiots in snow and ice.  It’s not me I’m worried about so much as the other idiots out there.

So, here’s an example of how confident I felt driving that stepvan this morning:

Leaving the plant with a hundred bundles of papers put some weight on my snow chains and I had no trouble going the speed limit, 25, in the downtown maze to the Ross Island bridge.  The Subaru in front of me was going dead slow, and when I had a chance, I passed hime.  Geehosefat, I passed Him!!!

I felt totally confident, bulling that stepvan into and out of all my stops.  Waking up late and being short of SO MANY papers puts a damper on my enthusiasum… but I had no troubles getting around.

Driving the car would be a different story maybe.  Don’t think I’ll try it.  I hear ice hitting the windows up here, and the local TV channels have switched to 24/7 coverage of this winter event, I’ve got food and the power’s still on. I don’t need to go out.

*****