The first snow.. I would have loved it, i would have enjoyed the snow.. Only if it was a matter of vacationing for a couple of days..
The snow is turning into sleet as soon as it hits the car now. The wiper is just nominal as it is smudging way more than its cleaning.
And it's snowing.... And raining... Hard. And we are on the road I76 enrojte to NJ. Visibility is poor owing to the deadly combo of the mist, the rain and the snow. "How can it rain and snow at the same time?", the dad asks. The passing eight wheelers splash huge amount of water on the windscreen reducing the visibility furthermore and the heart almost skips a beAt as the minivan, we are in, skids a little on the narrow trail of snow. The dad is a careful driver though and balances well.. We are already driving at 35mph on a freeway where until last week 80mph was the minimum. But, not today. We already crossed 3 very gruesome accident sites on our way. Good that the kids are distracted with their dora dvd, or else chini would have worried to sickness about everything. Anyways, the 3 ladies of the house are alreAdy down with cough and cold. I cant even believe we are out of the house in this condition(of health and the weather), leave alone travelling. Normally, snow would have sent me back under my bed covers. "Why are we going this far again?" the dad asks. I just smile. It's one of our very close friend's son's birthday and the plans to meet up has been made almost 2 months back. We could have cancelled. But decided otherwise. For two reaons - the kids fall sick so often that our social life had almost come to zero at a certain point (Which was proving to be unhealthy for all of us). That's when we had decided, we would try to be as good a sport as possible, in sickness and in health. Not on the cost of your lives, you fools!! Yeah! Cmon hit me now! Only fools like us would venture out of the house in this storm! Circular storms, that too, coming from colorado. The second reason, we had checked the weather this morning and though it suggested snow by the afternoon, we didn't think it would be this gross. Afterall, it's still autumn. The trees are still in the midst of changing colours and are not even half-way close to have shed them. The positive - the roads are not too bad - yet. This is the first snow, remember? And they are not entirely deserted either! I draw a solace in the fact that there are bunch of others out like us!.. And the snowy rainstorm or is it rainy snowstorm.. Has worsened as i type. We cannot see beyond two cars at the max.
Chini is getting restless in the car now. She has already asked 5 times if we have reached anywhere closer to the destination. "are we there yet?" is her favourite question. Normally, we would have said,"do you want me to pull over?" (from her fav silly joe's song) but today, we are not in moods of any jest. The eyes glued to thetr road ahead. Yeah mine too.. Am the co-driver after all. " please put snow princess dora on." she demands ." it's a perfect watch for todays weather". I stretch and fibble and fumble complying to her request and trying not to disturb( read irritate ) the one in the driver's seat. The Minute the dvd starts, he says,"i wonder how can that backpack hold so much froma pail to umbrellas to the life jacket." it takes me a while to realise hes talking about the purple big eyed backpack dora carries. "on top of it the poor girl carries it all the time without any complains or visible signs of tiredness. We used to be crushed under the dead weghts of our school bags." i just smile, thinking to myself" oh so its okay to talk today." normally, on trips like these, even smaller than these, any attempt to make a noise results in , let's say, facing his music(wrath). May be the snow has cooled him down, i mumble, in my mind though, as we enter a very very snowy patch again ( yeah for a while, the rain and the snow have been alternating). And we cannot see beyond the tail lights of the car must ahead of us, though that car is almost at a distance of 3 cars. "Benny should be given a couple of vicks tablets" he adds. " uh-oh" i reply as we pass another accident struck car that has lost its fender. " sometimes i feel that i can earn billions dubbing all those funny voices of these characters", the dad muses again. Now the chill has frozen his head for sure! I think as our vehicle splurges in a pool of snow.
"i love snow,momma" chini declAres. "i want to make snowman" sugar chips in....
And that makes me the mean witch who hates snow... I can even picture myself on that broom trying to destroy the magic snowy forest!!
