We visited my parents the other day, and we got caught on the way home from London in quite the snow-storm. We left half an hour before dark, which wasn't the brightest plan, but we didn't realize it had begun snowing. We did fine until Tavistock, where I pulled over and stepped into what had become a blizzard, and cleared off the headlights and the frozen clumps from the windshield wipers. As I brushed off the rad, the right headlight blinked out, and couldn't be revived.
We soldiered on, alternating for a while between one headlight and high-beams, but within a few minutes of driving snow, it was like driving in total darkness. We soon switched to high-beams on all the time, and not one person "high-beamed" us back.
Then, about 15 minutes outside of Waterloo, we saw our first car in the ditch, lights on, and signals flashing. We pulled off on the shoulder, and checked that the occupant had help coming. She did. We got back into the truck to go... and spent the next 10 minutes rocking ourselves into an ever deepening hole. The shoulder must have softened like crazy with all the rain and then the snow, and then our fantastically heavy diesel engine in the front and light, 2-wheel-drive back end were helpless. The tow-truck had two vehicles to rescue, but happily, we have BCAA.
What's irritating is that I knew I needed to put weight over the rear axles before the snow fell, and I dithered. Mabel is only a rear-wheel drive truck...
We got the rest of the way home, finding the Airstream draped in snow, but the furnace running reassuringly. As we trundled our stuff back inside, I noticed a dark shadow by the picnic table. To my utter amazement, there sat $1300 dollars worth of MonaVie bottles, miserably drenched and snow-covered in the open. After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I got them inside, muttering some choice words about UPS drivers.
We tore open the outside cardboard, and found 4 boxes of 12 so sodden and obscured that they are unsalable. One bottle was smashed. On the bright side, we have honest neighbours, and no one got curious and took some home, and neither had any of the bottles frozen. Had we turned back to London, as we debated doing, they would have been ruined.
What's irritating about this is I should have double-checked the tracking information from UPS. I assumed it was going to ship from Burnaby BC, but MonaVie has now opened a Toronto distribution centre (which I knew was coming at some point).
Anyway, it's now Monday morning, and there is an accumulated 6 inches of snow everywhere. It is definitely acting as insulation, because the furnace has been running less. So far so good! We are keeping our roof-vents open a crack at all times to let condensation escape, though we haven't perfected our strategies yet. Every morning there is condensation on some windows, and Kate is talking about a ban on boiling water on the stove... There are three bodies in here all day every day, adding quite a lot of moisture to the environment- I think one of those parabolic fans might help.
Today, we are going to try for the third time to get the correct attachment for our rented 100lb propane tank, because I know the cold weather is here, and I know our two 30lb tanks are running low.
Since I've shared my financial moves here before, I will just whisper a couple points from the cheap seats:
1. Don't think the stock market is going to rally in a sustained manner (Christmas bounces notwithstanding)- I believe there is quite a lot further to fall. And,
2. Since I don't believe our glorious leaders are going to allow hyper-inflation on their watches, I think the US dollar will inevitably tank, and that gold will rise. So will oil-based commodities- wow. Anyway, for the first time in my life, I have become a gold bull. Got some? It might not hurt to Get some.
