Fun with Exposure!

[sorcererdale]

I guess your windshield washer fluid doesn't have the anti freezing stuff in it. We just spray our windshields and the liquid melts most of the ice and we let the defrosters do the rest.

Coming back from NY state and driving through Canada, we had high winds and thus used more gas than on our way there. My son thought he could make it, but we ran out of gas just by the boarder. Gas is cheaper in the states. He quickly tried to find a gas station, and we would have made it except for the long red light at the intersection one block from the gas station.

His car died right there, and he said it would be best to push it out of the intersection and then he would go and get gas in a can to put in the car. Well, I had on my black Survival and going regimental as I always do. I was pushing from the back passenger side door and you know how the wind seems to come up from under the car. I felt the back of my kilt going up, and since I was pushing, couldn't do anything about it.

I could feel the wind, but am not really sure how high the kilt went up. Of course I was on the center side of the intersection where there were cars all around and people walking, but since I didn't hear any car horn toots or yells, I guess they didn't see anything! I told my wife about that when I got back in the car and she didn't say anything. She was probably trying to hold in a laugh.

DALE.

[Captain]

I guess your windshield washer fluid doesn't have the anti freezing stuff in it.

Yeah, you could find that stuff anywhere when I lived in Chicago... but it's a little rarer in these here parts... That and sand bags!

Oh boy... we get our first ice back in December some time and I pop in at Wal-Mart and darn near every hardware store in town to find some tube sand so I get a little bit of traction in my pickup truck on the ice. Every single clerk I asked looked at me like I was crazy. It went something like this:

Me: "Hey, do you guys have any tube sand?"

Clerk: "Huh? What's that?"

Me: "You know, sandbags... 60-70 lbs of sand in a tough nylon bag that you can throw in the back of your truck so you get traction on ice..."

Clerk: "We have some play sand... would that work?"

Me: "Uhhh... play sand? In a paper bag? A paper bag that when it gets wet will fall apart and fill my truck bed with fine sand that will run out all over the road?"

Clerk: "Yep."

Me: "No thanks."

I finally had some imported in from Michigan when my mom came to visit! Grr... Arg!

It's no wonder this state shuts down when it gets cold!

Anyway... yeah, if I'd had some de-icer windshield washing fluid... this never would have happened... and you guys couldn't laugh at me showing my bum to an empty parking lot!

[auld argonian]

That play sand comes in plastic bags at the Walmarts that I've been at...not the reinforced plastic bags but they would probably hold up pretty well.

Loved the story that the Car Guys told on NPR a couple of weeks ago about the one brother's "logical" idea that, since he had a waterproof liner in the bed of the truck, he should put some water in there and let it freeze and the weight of the ice would give him weight in the rear and thus give him some traction. I'm sure that you can see this one coming, right? As it thawed out, he had a big ice cube floating arond in the bed that slammed into the ack of the cab every time he hit the brakes and slammed into the rear gate every time he gassed it. Smart brains.

Just slow down...it's human nature to drive to fast for conditions and you have to supress the urge and hope that the rest of the drivers can do the same...it only takes one @$$#*!@ to cause a major accident in icy conditions.

Good luck

Best

AA