Bad days (a bit long and very cold)

[Clyde Hollinger]

Jon,

We all?  Contributors to this list come from an awful lot of places.  I bet a
few locations rarely see a flake.  I've had a couple problems with snow in the
past four weeks, but nothing even close to what Kristinn describes here.  Since
I'm not such a snow fan, thanks, Kristinn, for helping me appreciate living
where we don't get as much as you do.

Regards,
Clyde Hollinger
Lititz, Pennsylvania, USA

Jon Page wrote:

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

>
> >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
> >