Bad days (a bit long and very cold)

[Jon Page]

Kristinn,

We all have "Abominable Snow Stories".  I've had those days.
Fortunately, you made it without incident. Keep it up.

Warmest Regards,

Jon Page


At 10:29 PM 03/02/2000 +0000, you wrote:
>
>
>Where to begin?
>
>
>
>The weather has been pretty interesting this last week.  The last weekend I
>went to a town about 45 minutes away for a concert tuning.  The church that
>bought this new Steinway C from Hamburg was holding the concert in
>celebration of the new instrument.  Having tuned for them almost
>exclusively the last two years I decided to do this one for free.
>
>I started on my way around noon.  The road goes over pretty high country,
>and the weather on the moor was very bad, heavy snowing etc.  
>
>I finished tuning the grand and got on my way back.  I drove for about 25
>minutes the same way back and started noticing some jeeps in trouble with
>the snow.  
>Visibility was zero.  
>I figured this way was out of the question for my non-jeepish Toyota.  
>
>So, I turned back.  When I got down from the moor again the police had
>already closed everything down.  
>
>I decided to take the only other way to town (apart from driving the other
>way around the country).  The weather there was also bad but I got through
>-- just barely--  some two thousand people got stuck on this road just
>after I got through and had to stay there for up to 14 hours to be rescued.
> Nobody left their keys in the cars so the road was clogged up for the next
>day or two.
>
>
>Well, yesterday I drove a fifteen-minute way to a tuning.  An easy job, I
>was even offered a wonderful salmon dinner.  
>
>After that there was just the way back, eerily similar to the weekend.
>First of all there was a car stuck in the exit of a roundabout and I had to
>wait for that one to pull loose.  
>
>"Whoops, the gas light has been glowing for a good while now."  
>
>I smashed my way through the piles of snow in front of the gas station.
>Only the self-service part of the station was open so I couldn´t make
>anyone else than me suffer out in the weather.  After banging open the
>frozen lid on the car I went to pay.  I had to wipe the snow off the
>computer screen and stick my car key in the bill-slot to get the ice out.
>
>I took a bill worth 1000 IKR ($14) and started putting it in.  My fingers
>were numb by that time and I accidentally dropped the bill, which, sure
>enough, disappeared up on the roof of the station.  The next bill I took
>was only a 500 IKR (in case I also dropped that one, it would have been
>less of a loss).  That one went in easily so I proceeded pumping gas into
>my craving vehicle.  It all went fine up to 70 IKR ($1) --  either the pump
>was empty or just frozen!  
>My head also probably froze 'cause I feel rotten today.
>So on one dollars worth I got home.
>
>Other than that there hasn´t been much going on, apart from this week´s
>volcanic eruption, of course.
>
>
>Regards from the land of fire and ice,
>
>Kristinn Leifsson
>Reykjavík, Iceland  
>