Okay, I admit it, I’ve never used my tire chains. I bought a set back in 1993 when I bought my truck and have transferred them from cab to bed as I’ve needed the space ever since, but I never bothered to figure out how to use them. Never mind that as a Sys Admin I’ve pretty much been expected to get to work no matter the weather at every job I’ve had. I’ve walked or taken the bus if the 50lbs of sand strapped to my tailgate didn’t provide enough traction and figured that I could always call a cab if I was desperate. (Until I drove it once and found out how squirrelly it was in the ice, there were a couple years where I figured I could always take my now-ex-husband’s Subaru wagon.) Two years ago I decided that since I was chain adverse, I really should get studs, which are nice.
So today, we have several inches of snow (for Portland, this is a traffic stopper, in part because we don’t get snow often enough to make it cost effective to have enough plows to even clear the main roads.) Even though I work from home, I had to go out this morning. My truck was fine, although I certainly had to drive carefully. But it was clear to me that if it got any worse, I just wasn’t going to have sufficient traction. So, this afternoon as dusk was approaching I decided to bite the bullet and got out my chains and the instruction sheet and actually put them on my truck. The hardest part was actually separating the instruction sheet that has been sitting in a slightly leaky plastic bag in a very leaky plastic case in my truck for the last 13 years. I even went and drove around my neighborhood to test them out. (Nice.) So, even though I don’t need to go anywhere til Friday (and actually that meeting will be cancelled if the weather isn’t nice), I’m ready to go…
The Adventures of Competent Girl 