Lucky Star!

Ya'll have heard me talk about the monthly lunches four of the girls from my high school class and I have been having for the past two years now. Right?

Well today -or rather yesterday now since it's past midnight -was the day for our regular get-together.

However, this month, our lunch almost didn't come to be -thanks to the lovely (NOT) weather. It was snowing and blowing, very cold, really low temps to begin with and with the blowing snow and all that, the wind chill factor made it seem like it was way, way, way below zero! And about 11 a.m., my neighbor and good friend, Kate, who is part of this little group, called to tell me our friend Rose wasn't coming to lunch today because of the weather. Kate was wondering if I thought maybe we should cancel the meeting for today but I, in my infinite wisdom and good judge of snowfalls and possible road conditions that I am, said it doesn't bother me to drive on snowy roads -just freezing rain is the only thing that will stop me in my tracks!

So, we decided we would go to the restaurant where we meet and have lunch there and the weather be damned.

I left the house about 11:45 a.m. and headed out of town.

Now I have to add here that there is no way to get out of this little village but what you have to go up a hill and the road tends to be very curvy plus, since we are back off the beaten track a good bit, the state highway crew doesn't have our roads here in town as a high priority for clearing, cindering, salting, etc. And, there are a number of places where the snow tends to drift -a good bit at times too.

But why should I worry, after all, my little jeep has four-wheel drive ya know!

Anyway, I started up the first smaller hill in town but it is also rather steep although now that long a pull till you get to a small plateau and the rest of the way to the top it is a more gradual slant. And on the first hill, the jeep started to spin but before I could put it in four-wheel drive, I had reached a spot that was just wet and got traction again and made it the rest of the way to the top with no problems.

But about a mile further, there is yet another hill -not a steep one, a more gradual grade but this one often stays snow covered due to the trees on one side and fairly open field on the other that allows the snow to blow and yes, to drift.

As I started up that hill, I see a car coming around the curve towards me and I figured I probably should ease the jeep over as much as possible to the right. Now, I still hadn't put the jeep into four-wheel drive because it didn't look all that bad to me but when I touched the steering wheel I realized I had overlooked something.

The steering on the jeep is ultra sensitive and the least bit of movement at times can cause the little buggy to sort of swerve.

Which is exactly what happened when I started to move to the right side of the road.

The back end suddenly was trying to go in front of me!

I sashayed back and forth across the road, probably scared the person in the car coming towards me half out of their mind ya know. I kept trying to keep my mind on which way I was supposed to turn the steering wheel when the vehicle goes into a spin and finally made it up that hill and around the curve there.

But when I got around the curve, the jeep decided that it liked the idea of doing a really big circle for me and when it finally came to a stop, the right front tire was up against a smallish snowbank from the plowing earlier and the front end was point back towards home!

Okay, I admit I was more than a bit scared through that little ride and I thought about how if my son or ex-husband had been with me or driving, they would probably have been cackling like crazy and trying to see if they could get a couple more spins in to the ride too!

But I considered myself to be very lucky in that the other driver could have hit a spot and we could have collided either head-on or sideswiped or we both could have wiped out and hit a tree or a ditch or telephone pole or some such.

And I was able to get my nerves under control and get the jeep turned around so I was once again heading in the right direction -to the restaurant -and I even got there on time too -and obviously the jeep and I were both all in one piece as well!

So today, I'm counting this as my lucky star for the day and the fact that all's well that ends well makes it really and truly something befitting then for an "Only the Good Friday" post, don't 'cha think?

I sure do!