Deceptive!

We had a couple (?) of weeks of cold and snow here, including a morning of what I have to assume is black ice that made my drive to work one of the most stressful drives I've done in a very long time.  (I have never before encountered an entire city with no traction and seemingly no preparation overnight by those who generally do a good job of preparing.)

When I don't have to drive, I don't, as things generally don't stick around too long here, but I do still sometimes have to get places and so I often walk.

Walking, as I was reminded last week, is often more treacherous than driving would have been... le sigh.

So first of all there is the issue of sidewalks.  People are supposed to clear theirs, but that doesn't mean that they do or can or have done so by the time you head out.  Snow here is often slippery.  I say "snow here" as I've been told our snow is different than snow elsewhere due to our temperatures and the whole "coastal" thing, I don't know, I've not much if any experience of snow elsewhere.  But the easiest snow, for me at lest, to deal with is deep stuff.  Cuz then there's not really the worry about slipping.  But the annoying part about donning big snow boots and trudging through the deep/fresh snow is that it almost always is an uneven gait which almost always "hurts" a hip or something.  Boo.

Then there's the "uneven" snow.  It's the slippery stuff... there is sometimes a layer of ice under it or it is a layer of ice or it's half melted or sometimes some combo of all of the above and it's very easy to slip and either pull/strain something or fall.  Both are bad.  Falling is v bad.

With the freezing we had, a number of folks fell/slipped on ice and things got bruised or broken.  I stayed in (for the most part) on those days.  Although I did have to deal with the black ice day and I'm still not sure how I made it from the parking lot to work... seriously.  I gripped onto my car as long as I could and then it was like welp, wish me luck! (No, they hadn't salted.  Yes, I strongly suggested they did.  It had melted by the time I left for home.  Shrug.)

On the days where I had to get somewhere, I chose to wear my hiking boots, which have the most grip but are not waterproof (I have sprayed them though but still).

Yes, I have "grip" things for my shoes but I have found them pretty useless on actual ice/slippery snow.  YMMV.

So on the day I had to get my booster, I was SO thankful to anyone who had cleared their sidewalk.  Made it so I could actually walk, even at a normal pace!

When I got to "non cleared" sketchy areas, I actually chose to step off the sidewalk onto "fresher" snow for more traction.

And that's when I remembered what I had forgotten about walking in the snow.... the transition onto a roadway.

Sigh.

So you know when you have to cross a street and there's the edge of the sidewalk and then the street and then the edge again?  (I'm sure there's a name for it but I don't know what it is, sorry!)  Well that area is where the snow builds up either from cars or the occasional plow/pusher thing.  It's often raised and almost always slippery, either due to icing over on footprint areas or because of wet, compacted snow.

But the other day I was reminded of the other pitfall of that curb area... THE SLUSH PUDDLE!  (insert horror music here)

Yeah... there was a couple of times on my walk where I was trying to navigate an intersection, (while making sure no cars were turning or anything of course) and not slip on the snow piles and BOOM, foot fell through what looked solid into a slush puddle.

I just laughed both times because what else are you going to do (and I chose to walk, could have driven, and it wasn't going to be all THAT long of a time out and about).  But yeah, even if all sidewalks are magically cleared, heading into a street/intersection area is no good! Walking in the snow hazards man, I tells ya!

But hey, I clearly survived to tell the tale eh?