Gary, IN

So much for the roads being cleared by Wednesday. That "Winter Weather Advisory" should really be named "Are You Crazy? Stay Off the Freakin' Roads! They're Covered in Snow and Ice Advisory." After departing this morning, it wasn't long before snow began sticking to the road instead of simply blowing across it. In an effort to keep the same from happening to my windshield, I had the defroster on high, as anything less resulted in ice formation. I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. I eventually cracked my window a bit and was able to breathe again. Ahh, success - no ice on the windshield and I can breathe! Unfortunately, those weren't my only problems. Last night, I noticed I lost air pressure rapidly when the truck wasn't running. It's difficult to sleep with the low-air warning buzzer coming on about every twenty minutes, so I decided I'd be better off shutting the truck down and only restarting it for brief periods when the temperature got cold enough to wake me. Yeah, that's a fun game. The leak persisted this morning. That, coupled with the fact that my windshield-wipers had turned into giant popsicles despite the functioning defroster, led me to stop at the Petro in Remington, IN for service. When it's really really really cold outside, I don't much care for crawling around outside the truck to inspect the entire air system for a leak. Once inside the heated service garage, however, it only took me a minute to locate the source: a frozen air-dryer. I guess it didn't dry fast enough. Anyway, the mechanic busted out the industrial heater, threw in some air-line antifreeze, and I was good to go. Oh yeah, except for all that snow on the road. Despite driving slowly and gently, I was losing traction frequently, as indicated by the "Wheel-Slip" light on my dash. Anything but the mildest attempt at acceleration induced a wheel-spin and I knew that any attempt at braking would also cause a loss of traction, only with more severe consequences. I began to curse the lightweight furniture load that seemed so beneficent through the mountains yesterday and started thinking about stopping. Then it happened. Traffic was stopping ahead. I applied the brakes as softly as possible, little more than resting my foot on the brake pedal, and at 30 mph I almost jacknifed. That was far more proof of the treacherous conditions than I needed. I stopped thinking and got off the interstate as soon as possible.

My deliveries have been rescheduled for tomorrow morning, though I don't have much hope the roads will be any better by then. Since here, I've watched tv, listened to XM, and browsed the Web. Now it's time for more of the same before I get some sleep.