AKA How Not To Drive In The Snow

This device is for fun and chores, not for augmenting one's car.

As we are having a normal North Idaho winter, snow is present and there is an abundant supply. With it being winter break from school, the children have been taking advantage of a lack of studying by sledding A LOT. We live on a pretty good sized chunk of acreage, and have been blessed by having the best neighbors ever on the bordering piece of land. Part of that blessing comes from the never-ending source of amusement that is Billy.

Billy has anger issues. That is one of the first things that I was told by my two kids about the 3rd of four brothers that lived adjacent to our farm. He looked like he weighed about twenty-five pounds with wet laundry on. Often the very small and skinny child would come running over for a Popsicle, and I couldn't believe how tiny he was, especially next to my Polynesian hybrid children. What Billy lacks in mass; he makes up for with presence.

One of my favorite Billy features is his disdain for footwear. It can be freezing cold outside and that kid will run to my house without any shoes on. I think they could line a spacecraft with the substance that makes up Billy's feet, and it would for sure survive re-entry.

So, back to the snow. Billy has been told, along with all of the other kids, not to leave their sleds in the middle of the driveway. My husband and I had the opportunity to escape the other day for an afternoon together, and as we slowed down to say goodbye to all of the kids; snowballs flew in our general direction. We sped away without a backward glance. Recently, after driving the same car for fifteen years, I finally had to purchase a brand new vehicle. As we drove down the mile of ice and snow covered driveway, I thought we were skidding a bit more than normal, but wasn't too concerned. As we turned onto the county road, I became even more concerned as the ABS light came on in my brand new car. What was going on? During all of this intruige, I had been aware of a slight scraping noise, but attributed it to ice hanging off of the bottom of the car and rubbing our snow tires. Imagine my surprise when my husband started skidding all over the place and pulled into a driveway to investigate what was up.

Underneath the back driver's side wheel was a sled. It was acting like a giant ski on the car. It was Billy's sled, for while my husband and I were rocking the car back and forth in someone's driveway trying to get the sled out from under the car tire; a devastated Billy was howling in despair and running down the road trying to catch us. Our phones lit up with text messages of inquiry, and I laughed until I cried as I threw the unmarked sled of Billy into the trunk of our car.

All of this occurred on Christmas Eve, and I'm fairly sure that Billy rested easy that night, as I returned his precious sled, unscathed, to his front porch later that day.

His presence will be known. Usually due to his resulting trail of Popsicle wrappers.

All photos were taken with my iPhone.

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