OH MY WORD!!
It was Jnauary. When we left the house, fairly early in the morning (daughter was at school in the city), I had first to clear all the snow off the windscreeen and back window, which I did. We drove out onto the main road. As we approached the bends, I put the wipers on to clear the windscreen again - and they drew ice from the sides right over the windscreen. It was completely covered in white, I could not see a thing. I was absolutely terrified, I rammed the heater on full blast, opened the side windows and attempted to navigate from what I could see out of those (mainly the river, which the road followed closely). I suppose the screen cleared in a very short time but it felt like an eternity. I was convinced we had both breathed out last. So I can certainly empathise with your nightmare.
There it is, come to life! I've several times had this happen on leaving early in the morning, something happens that fogs the windscreen up, and it then frosts right back over, you have to stop. Happily it was always still in the drive but I have left the drive in anxiety peering through the wipers cleared spots, and having to roll the side windows down to access the road. At the times it seemed to be living the dream, but it's never suddenly happened to me ON the public road. I would have totally freaked out!
And I agree, all those long drives to meetings, etc in the dark in winter were awful. Our minor roads are often unmarked, unlit and sometimes covered in invisible ('black') ice. And before we had mobile phones you really were out there by yourself. In some parts you still are, as the signal is minimal or non-existent.
All this is true here as well. And when the times change, and you're driving in darkness on a cold morning, our side roads are not marked save a green sign. By day this is visible, it's totally invisible in the dark, no markers, no landmarks, no light, the headlights don't illuminate far to the side enough, no indication that there IS a road or where that road is. I've gone by a turn several times of a dark morning and the only indication was that cars would turn in, I'd u turn, come back and still be unable to see it. That was pre lens implants. Now it's possible I could see it? I am not wanting to find out.
I did take my car, whose headlamps had yellowed a bit as most of them do, (and I didn't realize that is a hazard to night driving) to an auto body shop. When they had finished painting the hood that for some reason had pitted, I said well if the headlamps were clear, you'd not know that wasn't a new car (and you wouldn't have). He said oh we can fix that, come back one day about 11am . So I did and the headlamps were as new, white, silver-ish, stunningly new. No charge. 15 minutes. I said how can I keep it that way? He said get it really clean and wax it, or have this procedure done yearly.
I've got the wax but it never made it on the lamps and they are not as new looking again. I'll have to take it back. It's amazing the difference it makes in a car.
Still engrossed in Night Train to Lisbon, which seems sometimes like The Shadow of the Wind, sometimes like a philosophical take on life, always book centered. It's a philosophical journey. Raises lots of questions. Really enjoying it.
Also reading Alfred Church on Pliny's Letters. I like his dry way of summarizing facts in an interesting manner. For some reason this reproduction book I have, I think it was free on Kindle, seems to have difficulty with the letter R. So it's Eome and Eoman which is quite disconcerting. I am going to see if an in print version is available.
Having no luck at all getting any kind of clear directions for dahlias. I have read endless sites, seen endless youtube instructional movies. Everybody and every society on Facebook or anywhere else has a different way of treating them. I am certainly not going to have an entire spare room devoted to dahlia tubers over the winter, for Pete's sake. The American Dahlia Society says if you can grow tomatoes you can grow dahlias and so that's where I'm going to look for instruction because we sure can grow tomatoes.
What's everybody reading? Are you watching the Crown? See our Movies section.
