Driving in Snow

Yesterday I practiced driving on snow and ice. I went downtown to volunteer at the Boise Rescue Mission's River of Life. There was not much traffic on Thanksgiving Day, which is good and bad. No other cars to crash into, but also no other cars to loosen up the road. I helped serve a couple hundred lunches and felt grateful that I am not homeless in Idaho. Three of the other volunteers were a couple with their 10 year old daughter. The daughter worked really hard and seemed really brave to me and I thought about all the times I meant to take Lauren to serve Thanksgiving to the homeless. I never did take Lauren to do that, but I still think it is a great experience for anyone to learn what they take for granted.

On the way home I stopped and took pictures at the parks.





I was amazed that the ponds were already frozen enough to skate on. Geese continue to fly over on their way somewhere else, but the seagulls are still hanging around.

I was headed out the door with my pie and Cruiser shot for the door. He keeps forgetting how cold it is outside. I stuck my foot out and he crashed into it, which stopped him. Sorrel boots are much more effective for this than other shoes.

Then I went to Mary Kay's and then to Mary Kay's mom's for Thanksgiving. My pie was a big hit and Mary Kay's mom actually took it around and showed everyone the little apples I put on top of the lattice crust. I used the Honeycrisp apples, which worked out well, and Meyer lemon, which happened to be at the grocery store a week ago. Honeycrisp apples are a bit sweeter than Golden Delicious, so I used less sugar, and the ones I bought were huge, so I only had to peel 4 apples to fill up a pie. I am OK with peeling apples, but sometimes I really wish for the fancy cutter that cuts the lattice strips perfectly even.

The battery in the thermostat at Mary Kay's mom's house went out yesterday morning. Mary Kay's 83 year old mom was out driving around at 5 am Thanksgiving morning looking for an open store that sold batteries. I was glad she found them and to be sitting is someone else's warm house.

The toughest drive was home in the dark where it is harder to see the icy patches, but the worst part is driving down the alley to my garage, because it is still full of snow. As I look at other people's cars outside and covered in snow, I think it was really smart to get a house here with a garage, snow alley or not.

I did some on-line research on my car's 37 degrees warning light. It does not mean there is anything wrong or anything to do and Toyota got rid of this light with the 2006 Prius. The best suggestion that I found to deal with the light being on all winter is to stick a piece of tape over the light. Which would be more annoying, the piece of tape or the warning light? I think the tape, so I resolved to just ignore the stupid light. Mary Kay's nephew offered to go out and start everyone's cars before they left last night, which reminded me again that I am now in Idaho, but I don't think it makes a bit of difference if my car is warmed up.