An Icy Drive

I had a pretty rough night, full of bad dreams.

Mostly dreams having to do with icy roads and sliding vehicles and terrible accidents.

At least I don't have to wonder why those were muddled around in my subconsious. The five hours I spent in a vehicle last night watching sliding vehicles, near misses, and a few accidents quite nicely explains that.

I will not be driving anywhere today unless it is absolutely necessary.

We had freezing rain yesterday that coated the roads, and then froze, turning roads into skating rinks, making hills impassable, and generally creating traffic chaos.

I've never liked driving to begin with. I do it because, well, it's convenient, and Calgary's public transit system is so very not.

I got my "learner's license" at 16. (Two years later than you're first legally allowed to obtain it.) I only finally got a full fledged license days before my twenty first birthday, motivated simply by the fact that the learners was going to expire and I didn't want to pay to renew it, and then pay again a short time later for a new license.

My new license was what Alberta calls a "graduated" license. I held that for a full five years, until this past summer, just days before my 26th birthday, where I scheduled a second road test to get rid of the conditions. Again, the motivation was simply that my license was going to expire, and I figured it was as good a time as any to take the test, rather than paying to renew a license and then paying several months later to upgrade it.

Winter driving is definitely my least favorite, and often leaves me shaky. Though I've seen terrible roads, I've not, in the years I've been driving, seen roads as icy as they were last night.

It doesn't help that my first accident ever happened because of winter road conditions. Or, that, months later, when I was finally able to get behind the wheel without feeling a surge of panic, I was driving home from a friend's rural home, hit some black ice at a notorious location on a major highway, and did a 360 degree spin in my rental car, starting in the right lane of traffic, and ending just barely on the road on the left shoulder. It was only by the grace of God that I wasn't hit by oncoming traffic. I drove for two more hours to get home that night, through terrible conditions. And then, last winter, after another heavy snowfall, I again hit some black ice on a major city road, and slid quite nicely into a guard rail, banging up the front end of my car, but again, thankfully, not getting hurt, or hitting any other vehicles.

So five hours (even if I was only the driver for two) on severely icy roads last night wasn't that helpful.

We've had a mild winter so far, and budgetary concerns have meant that I delayed having my winter tires put on. They're going on on Monday (only two days from now!), along with a few other repairs I've been waiting to have done. So I was driving on old, slightly bald summer tires on the iciest road conditions I've ever seen for two hours last night.

And, since Calgary doesn't salt, plow, or sand residential roads, and I live at the top of a hill, I won't be going anywhere by car until we have a bit of a thaw (predicted for tomorrow). My dad managed to get my car from the spot I'd temporarily abandoned it last night, to a safe parking spot in front of my house, and it is going to stay there until the roads thaw. I'll take transit to the one or two places it is absolutely necessary for me to go today. Because anything is better than getting behind the wheel again on those roads. I relived them all through the night, I have no desire to relive them in my waking reality today.

Daily 5 - Day 107

I think I'm only going to write 5 today, not 10 the way I have been... it's not that it was a bad day, just very, very long, and the things I'm grateful for are large and simple tonight.

1. I'm thankful to have made it home in one piece. On an evening where the roads were like skating rinks, it took me two hours to drive to meet my parents, I had to abandon my car because I couldn't get it up an icy hill, and then we spent three more hours trying to get to my brother's Christmas choir concert before finally giving up (turns out only 11 choir members made it there either!), going so my dad could rescue my car, and get both me and George home, I'm just grateful that there weren't any accidents, and I was incredibly relieved to be out of a moving vehicle and in the safety of my own house.
2. I'm thankful for three hours in a car with my parents. Lots of chatting and catching up.
3. I'm thankful for the changes in my body that let me know that I'd missed dinner while sitting in a car for five hours. It used to be that my appetite was so suppressed that I didn't even notice if I skipped a meal. While I was by no means starving, I was definitely hungry by the time I finally made it home tonight.
4. I'm thankful that there are almost no plans for tomorrow that are pressing, and that the few that are somewhat pressing can be accomplished with relative ease via public transit.
5. I'm thankful for the comforting warmth of my own bed.
6. (oh, and a bonus) I'm thankful my dad rescued my car. while I could have walked from where I live to get it once the roads thaw, I definitely feel better about it being parked outside my apartment building instead of along a relatively abandoned street near a local park.
   

Having Reverence and Respect for the Body

Another challenging thought from Henri Nouwen...

Having Reverence and Respect for the Body

In so many ways we use and abuse our bodies. Jesus' coming to us in the body and his being lifted with his body in the glory of God call us to treat our bodies and the bodies of others with great reverence and respect.

God, through Jesus, has made our bodies sacred places where God has chosen to dwell. Our faith in the resurrection of the body, therefore, calls us to care for our own and one another's bodies with love. When we bind one another's wounds and work for the healing of one another's bodies, we witness to the sacredness of the human body, a body destined for eternal life.

Seriously? Seriously?

It was a rough night.

A full of dreams kind of night.

A finally have to give in and take painkillers in hopes of catching just an hour or two of sleep kind of night.

I think I slept about three hours. Maybe.

I'm still bemused by the events of yesterday. I wish I could share them publicly, but I can't at the moment. Suffice it to say that you would all have a very good laugh at my expense. Because God really does have a sense of humor.

Just as a taste, in the midst of a challenging conversation with a dear friend yesterday, we were talking about our hearts being changed, made new. I knew that I was in for an adventurous next little while when, driving home from work after the conversation, I got stuck for quite a distance behind a vehicle with custom license plates that read "NUHEART".

This is one of those backwards days at the office. I'm going to be hauling dirty boxes and totes full of mail for most of the day, and really should be wearing grubby clothes. However, I don't have time for a wardrobe change after work, and I need to be wearing nice clothes to meet my parents for dinner and attend the Christmas choir concert that my brother is a part of tonight. Figures that the one day of the week where I could be casual and grubby at work, I need to look nice for after work. I compromised with jeans and boots, a tanktop, blazer, and cute necklace and bracelet. Here's hoping I don't get the blazer too grubby while I'm hauling totes all day.

I think it's going to be an interesting weekend. Unique in oh so many ways.

In the meantime, I find myself returning to my Grey's Anatomy loving self and regularly looking heavenward, thinking of God's sense of humor and irony as currently on display in my life, and with a rather sarcasticly chuckling tone, quoting one of my favorite Meredith Grey lines, "Seriously? Seriously?"

Daily 5 - Day 106

Today's Daily 5 (or so):

1. Bemused laughter at the incredible nature of some events that rather fully displayed God's deeply ironic sense of humor to me today
2. a relatively decent day at work
3. "NUHEART"
4. grocery shopping for this pay period (even with some extras for all the baking I've been doing) coming in at just (barely - like $3) under budget
5. making it through the tightest pay period yet on my budget and still having enough for what I needed, and even for some wants
6. freshly washed sheets, pajamas and towels
7. news of a very good sale tomorrow at a shop that I use items from daily, and realizing that I can find time in the midst of a very busy schedule to get there (I know sales are common in the States the day after thanksgiving, but tomorrow is just another day here in Canada, and it was nice to get news of a great sale.)
8. maple chicken and yams for supper - new recipe, turned out quite well, and I'll definitely be making it again
9. A grocery shopping trip that didn't involve drama. Everything was in stock for a change, and I didn't leave the store in a homicidal mood (though, I was quite distracted and amused/bemused by other events of the day, so that probably helped)
10. chuckling with a couple different friends over the events of the day.