Snow!

Cliff Mass, our local Puget Sound weather guru, assured all his devotees last Friday that Seattle definitely would not experience a white Christmas but, as we all found out Sunday afternoon, his forecast erred, in fact missing that Seattle experienced its first back to back snowy Christmas Eve and Christmas days, both delighting wide-eyed children and thoroughly alarming the average driver  suddenly braving icy roads.  And how did I feel about this modest one-inch snowfall, having learned to drive a car at ages 12 and 13 in New Mexico and northern Alberta, Canada?

At first I felt fine, thinking I knew all about it but that quickly changed when, coming back from a long ride to Issaquah along Issaquah-Hobart Road, 1092 suddenly took off sideways, propelled by black ice and instantaneously putting me in the direct path of oncoming traffic.  Looking like I was about to die I fortunately remained calm, allowing my over 52 years of driving a car to "click in," thus spinning 1092 to the right which somehow facilitated a snowy soft landing into an adjacent ditch.  That it was the closest of calls is the proverbial understatement, causing me to repeatedly question myself "just what the hell did I think I was doing?"  Rocking 1092 back and forth, I roared out of the ditch, and then, very carefully, made it back to westbound I-90.

In retrospect it seems two things occurred.  One, I must have been going "too fast for conditions" though I wasn't in any way speeding; and two, it appears a sudden drop in temperature altered road conditions in a few minutes span.  That I almost killed myself made me very unhappy.

But cab driving being cab driving, I just kept on going, that night making great money despite nearly entering the closest morgue and causing "she-who-can't-be-named" unbearable grief.  As I later told her, if she had been watching a live video stream she would have screamed out loud. And I am not kidding!

Have I ever mentioned at least once or twice that taxi driving is crazy, crazy, crazy!?  No doubt friends, it is crazy!  And when it comes to cab driving, it is impossible to be careful enough, it just beyond human ability, and that night, at that moment in time, I felt incredibly human, the homo- sapien made of very vulnerable flesh and blood and muscle and of course, breakable bone.

And as one very minute part of the universal mystery, extremely alone!