Last color

 November 24, 2008 – About the only time I truly think I’m crazy living up here is nights like tonight when rain turns to freezing ice, and I am driving down a country lane in the truck and suddenly I have lost control and the truck is spinning back and forth and sideways. I’ve been up in the country for nearly 10 years, and I know now that there is little you can do, once you are upon a sheet of black ice you didn’t see coming. The ABS brakes sort of take over and you try and simply flow with it, skating for 100 yards or so, and this has happened more times than I care to count, and it reminds me of the power of winter, and the curious experience of driving out in the dark late at night on a road with no houses for miles.
 Perhaps it helps to be nuts. The truck did a great job of staying on the road, and I am grateful for the snow tires I put on last week.
 Now I am alert to driving at night in the wet and cold.
  This is a part of life in the country, and this time of year, you think about going out at night, but driving is also a part of life. I trust my truck now, and it won’t fail me. The trick is to be alert and cautious, but not give in to fear. Isn’t that the trick the rest of the time, too? I was joking that I worry all the time about the silliest and most meaningless things, but skidding on ice doesn’t frighten me at all. Odd.