Brutal Weather Affects Holliday Traffic

This Christmas season for most of us residing in the Panhandle of Idaho, is going to be one without a lot of travel and visiting involved. Single digit and less, temperatures in the last week are threatening to extend on into next week. Low temps, snow, blowing snow and dangerously untrained winter drivers are all contributing to a stay at home attitude this year.

I have a trip planned for Saturday, December 20 to my Son's home in north Spokane, but am thinking very seriously of canceling it. As long as we have SUV drivers with all wheel drive thinking they are 10 feet tall and bullet-proof, it's life threatening out there. Several lives have already been lost in the last few days in traffic accidents.

A coat of ice underlies the snow that is currently coming down, as one more storm hits us. The unfortunate use by road department officials of chemicals to melt the ice made it worse. I read the other day that these chemicals don't work below about 10 degrees. they just start to melt the surface, then refreeze making it much worse. It's too bad they can't think before acting, but there it is. Procedures are written in stone.

For this Christmas I'm going to stay near home. I'm hosting a small dinner for myself and neighbors Christmas Eve, then I'll go to the community dinner Christmas day at Terry's Cafe. Oh, and I'll be thinking about all of my friends and relatives that will be celebrating elsewhere. Fred Gindreaux, a quasi Brother-In-Law, just diagnosed with terminal brain cancer will be in my thoughts and prayers as well.