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It ended up snowing all day and all night. Two winter storms hit the city in rapid succession and dumped over twenty centimeters of snow on the ground.
Traffic in the afternoon rush was not too heavy, but everyone was going slowly, and there were too many cars on the road to let me pass. To be more precise, the cars that were on the road were positioned in such a way that passing was nigh-impossible.
When I got home, we had to get ready for the dinner at KW's place. I knew that the highway leading there was one gigantic parking lot, so I took a risk and decided to take the side streets instead. The risk being that the roads were not plowed at all.
I was also hoping that my winter tires would hold up to the conditions.
Well, the roads were indeed not recently plowed. There were at least five centimeters of snow anywhere I went, with more falling every minute. However, there was virtually no traffic on the streets and we were able to make good time. However, we hit a snag when we were crossing the Don Valley on Lawrence Avenue. Just about every street that crosses the Don Valley will have a very steep incline to get out of the valley, and Lawrence Avenue is no exception. One saving grace was the fact that the road was so wide. If one lane was blocked, there were still two others to use. If two were blocked, traffic would certainly slow down.
Well, we got into the valley and immediately came to a standstill. In the distance, I could see that there was a truck that had gotten stuck on the right hand side of the road. What surprised me was the fact that traffic was still not moving despite only having one lane blocked. Closer inspection revealed a second tractor trailer that was slowly inching up the road, with traffic slowly crawling behind. In addition, a number of the cars that had gotten stuck behind the trucks and stopped were now also stuck! I spent a number of minutes weaving around the stuck vehicles, giving them wide berth lest they suddenly veer towards my car. I was very happy with my tires, since I had no trouble getting up the hill.
It was so bad on the road that I saw car upon car upon truck that had gotten stuck in the snow and were struggling to move. One hapless van was sliding down the hill even though it was perpendicular to the fall line, and the tires were pointed uphill.
It is times like these that I am so glad that I got myself this second set of tires, although I should look into replacing them for next year..
We ended up arriving late to dinner, but there were tons of leftovers. We did not stay too long since everybody started to leave not long after we arrived. The highlight (or lowlight) of the night was when JW lost his phone. We spent the next hour combing the house, the walkway, the driveway, and the street looking for the device with no luck. It was quite unfortunate. At least I was able to drive him to the subway station safely?
