Sounds and Scares of Winter

Speaking of scary drivers....
Nothing like coming upon one of these on the wrong side of a blind hill.
 At least this guy has lots of reflectors

We are back in the cold again, not surprisingly, I guess. Saw a meme on Facebook yesterday about how they used to call this polar vortex hoopla winter back in the day.

And yep, it's just winter. Doesn't mean we have to like it, but it wasn't invented last week either.

Anyhoo....yesterday Becky and I were standing in the kitchen buttoning, booting, zipping, and wrapping, and generally getting ready to go to chores when we heard this motor. If you are a farm woman, you get to know how motors and transmissions should sound. After all, you have probably driven big machines, pulling other big machines, chopping, or baling or whatever, and you darned well better know how to tell when something is wrong. Otherwise you will break big things and your name will be mud. I used to be able to tell when the 5088 needed oil, even if it was just down a tad, without ever pulling the dipstick.

As we heard this motor, we looked each other in the eyes and knew that something was not right. Sounded starved for fuel, maybe a frozen line, or something not getting somewhere it needed to be. It was struggling, real hard, and sounding just awful. And it scared us.

Because it was a plane! Going right over the house. Low and laboring, gasping and grumbling. Simultaneously we said, "Please don't crash and hit us..."

She ran outside as it rumbled overhead to report that it seemed to have headed off toward the Johnstown airport safely, but we were still shuddering from something besides the cold, I promise you.

Then last night I had a feeling....our boy and my brother are down there in helpless city people land where they are getting a big snowstorm. I checked on Al, And yep, they were both having trouble. Five hours to make the normally short drive from their respective work places to where they live when they are down there, normally an hour's drive or so.

They both made it home, but no thanks to lousy road care and worse drivers. Alan says the plows are so short that the snow just tumbles over, and what he says about the drivers doesn't bear printing. 

I know winter is just winter, and January is big on winter in this hemisphere, but I won't lie and say I find it entertaining, because, nope, I really don't. Stay warm!