Tag: cars

Pre-Christmas

It started with a bang.

Car with extremely damaged front end.

Two days before we were supposed to head north, Jean’s work car was struck by a flying tire on the 401, a major Ontario highway. This was both unlucky and lucky.

  • Unlucky: Getting struck by a flying tire
  • Lucky: Sustaining no personal injuries
  • Unlucky: Having to wait hours for a tow because of the location of the incident
  • Lucky: Was not a car we own, so ultimately not our expense nor responsibility

Handing off this responsibility did consume much of Jean’s next day after he was finally towed back home… Getting the police report in, getting the car towed the car elsewhere, etc.

But, we were able to leave as planned in our car the day after that. Automobile was chosen as the method of transportation this year because Air Canada’s fares have basically doubled, so even the “lower fare” period of early December wasn’t all that low.

It’s a long drive. We broke it up by stopping in to visit with Jean’s sister who lives in Sudbury, which was very nice. We also briefly saw one of Jean’s nieces, who is currently residing there while she plays for the local hockey team (and goes to school!).

Two young girls posing on ice with hockey sticks.
Not Jean’s niece. She’s somewhat older than these girls. But we didn’t take a lot of photos on this trip. This photo is by Oleksandr P on Pexels.com

The roads were mostly good, though we did get some blowy, slightly slippery snow near the end. We made it to Dad’s all right. Dad has just turned 89 and is still living on his own. He had a nice dinner prepared for us.

We then had two full days there, during which we managed to pack in a good amount of visiting:

  • We went over to see Jean’s other sister, catching up on family news over tea.
  • Jean met up with his brothers and most of their wives at a local restaurant.
  • A visit with old friends was a bit uncertain, as she was navigating her father through the hospital system. But he was discharged to his nursing home in time for us to be able to meet, which was great.
  • My brother, his girlfriend, and my nephew came over for a birthday dinner (both my brother and father celebrate around this time), which was jolly good fun.

We also got out cross-country skiing for the first time in years. We have some photographic evidence of that!

View of ski club buildings and trees.
The trails here are amazing. We did 5 km.
On cross-country skies in snow-capped tree forest.
The trees looked beautiful all along. Winter wonderland.
Me in front of Porcupine Ski Runners McNair Chalet.
No, it’s not named after me. But it is named after my parents, who have put in hours and hours of volunteer work here over the years.

The drive back went reasonably well also. Some slightly slick roads at the start, then a few somewhat intense flurries at the end, but we made it home without a bang.

Jean said that he felt as though he’d already had Christmas.

Continue reading “Pre-Christmas” →

Bit of a rocky road north

Jean’s Mom, who’d never been quite the same after a stroke in February, passed away in late August. The family decided to have a small memorial service. The date selected was Saturday, November 5.

Wednesday

We left around 10:15 AM, intending to stop over in Sudbury on the way to Timmins. The drive started uneventfully enough; we were diverted by the audiobook of State of Terror, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny.

But after an hour and a half or so, Jean noted that the car seemed to be losing power periodically, during which it was quite reluctant to accelerate. Maybe just gas quality? he suggested. As we Googled to find the nearest gas station, I suggested options. We still had time before we really had to be anywhere. Maybe we could get the car looked at. Maybe we could rent a car for this trip.

Well, let’s just try gas first, Jean suggested.

And indeed, filling it up did make it run smoother.

For another couple hours, anyway. But then it started doing the losing power thing again. Hills were a problem.

Continue reading “Bit of a rocky road north” →

Winter weather, winter tires

I’ve been a convert to winter tires for some time now, but a recent episode of Marketplace comparing the performance of all season and winter tires still really struck me. How much farther the all-season car skidded before stopping, at a mere 60 k/hour. The repeated but failed attempts by the expert driver to swerve and avoid hitting a “pedestrian”, compared with the absolute ease of doing so with the winter tires.

The show also had a few facts I didn’t know. Like all season tires start to lose effectiveness at 5C. (I thought it was a little colder.) That even on bare but cold pavement, they make a big difference. That the 10% of Quebec drives who didn’t use snow tires were responsible for 38% of the accidents.

That, with this week’s weather, is making me a little stunned that only 20-30% of Ontario drivers use winter tires. The logical part of my brain understands why: It’s an initial outlay of about $650, and the fact that your all season tires will last twice as long may not be enough to make up for that. You need some place to store an extra set of tires. And it’s just a bother to have to go and get tires changed each season. (Let alone the fact that all season tires are called “all season tires”, which certainly makes you think they ought to work all year around.)

But then I keep getting distracted by thoughts like, well, what is your life worth? And the lives of other drivers? Driving is the most dangerous thing most of us do. Why are you increasing the risk by driving around on hard slippery rubber?