I'm Not Dreaming Of A White Christmas
I used to, when I was a kid pulling a sled. It was fine when we went out caroling and came home to hot chocolate. Lovely when we went to bed on Christmas Eve with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads. Before, that is, I had to drive to church, to a restaurant for a nice brunch, before I lived in a valley with roads going up and down.
When I lived in a flat village, all was well. We walked to church, we walked to the general store, we walked to the diner down at the beach.
When I moved here, all was not well. I am at the top of a hill and the only safe way to get down is an opposing one-way street. The other two allowable ways cross main roads which are controlled by traffic lights; one usually has a thin stream of water crossing it, on a good day, and ice on a bad day. Winters are bad days.
I don’t mind having trouble getting back up to my place; there are places to ditch the car and walk up the hill. That’s no problem and little more than an inconvenience. But going down, with the potential of sliding through those intersections … that’s a whole ‘nother situation. These are steep hills.
Locomotives have sanders just ahead of their driving wheels. For them, it’s a way to get traction and prevent wheel slip as they start up. But for us, it might be a good way to keep from slipping as we approach a red light or travel down a hill on a slick road. Anyone want to share patent rights with me?
When I lived in a flat village, all was well. We walked to church, we walked to the general store, we walked to the diner down at the beach.
When I moved here, all was not well. I am at the top of a hill and the only safe way to get down is an opposing one-way street. The other two allowable ways cross main roads which are controlled by traffic lights; one usually has a thin stream of water crossing it, on a good day, and ice on a bad day. Winters are bad days.
I don’t mind having trouble getting back up to my place; there are places to ditch the car and walk up the hill. That’s no problem and little more than an inconvenience. But going down, with the potential of sliding through those intersections … that’s a whole ‘nother situation. These are steep hills.
Locomotives have sanders just ahead of their driving wheels. For them, it’s a way to get traction and prevent wheel slip as they start up. But for us, it might be a good way to keep from slipping as we approach a red light or travel down a hill on a slick road. Anyone want to share patent rights with me?
posted by Tom Carten at 1:56 AM
1 Comments:
When we moved to Mountain Top (a plaque here says "so named from position on mountain top" I thought it would be a walker's paradise. Well, it's not. Regardless of where I walk, it's a miracle trail - uphill both ways. I walked much more when I lived in the city.
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