Almost killed

The weather has been a whirlwind of furry the past few days. The snow is so heavy at points you cant see further than your back yard and the wind so crazy you could get swept away. But still the baka gaijin refuse to stay indoors where its warm and safe. JoeyD, Rebecca, Maggy and I decided to go to Yamagata (well we had to drop Maggy off so she could go back Kahoku and return to reality). The drive there was pleasant and we rocked out to ipods and laughed at JoeyD's numerous one liners. But the ride back home was an entirely different story.

The snow had faded, but the roads were icy and full of snow. JoeyD is a great driver, but hasn't quite learned that he cant drive the same in the dry summer as in the icy, cold winter.

First we got stuck behind this extraordinarily slow driver and after 20 minutes of tugging slowly behind him due to the numerous curves uphill and the on-coming traffic we finally were able to pass him in a tunnel. It was an expertly done take over! But the JoeyD got cocky and confident and started speeding back down the hill to Nagai. After about 5 minutes of thinking "Hes driving awfully fast" I got a strange feeling and vocalized it "JoeyD, I worry that you are going to have to slam on your breaks at some point and the back tires are going to slide. You are going awfully fast" Rebecca having been thinking the same thing JoeyD started to slightly slow down and within 2 minutes of the comment all of a sudden...... brmbrmbrm... we didn't turn enough into the right hand turn and hit the edge of the small snow area on the side of the road which made the wheel turn right. JoeyD tried to straighten it out and then we slid. The front end turned right and the back end slid widely behind it. Making a huge U swing across the other lane and, due to JoeyDs braking skills, slid softly into the other lanes shoulder that was covered in snow. Now sitting in with the head of the car at the edge of the snow bank and the back side in the middle of the oncoming traffic side of the road. JoeyD immediately backed up and did a 3 point turn to get us back in the correct lane and off and going again safely.

The best part and during this entire time it was silent. Somehow none of us said a word, not a moan, not a scream not even an exasperated sigh. Just dead silence as the car silently swooshed across the lanes. None of us even remember hearing Madonna who was playing in the through the speakers. It was just silence until we started going in the right direction again safely.

We were very lucky that there was no on coming traffic and that no one was following closely behind or else there could have been a very big accident and possibly a car pile up. But God or what ever being that you have faith in, was watching over us tonight! I think he taught JoeyD to be more careful on the icy road and spooked Rebecca and I enough for another year!

So moral of the story! Please drive carefully on those icy roads!