The Dangers of Country Life, IV

[oloriel]

Imagine that there has been frost for three weeks straight.

Imagine further that temperatures have been rising since the past full moon, with yesterday marking the line when air temperatures reached above 0° (Celsius, that is).

Imagine that the first thing the air does with the lovely new warmth is drizzle.

What happens to the roads?

BLACK ICE, that's what happens. The entire road is coated by an almost invisible, finger-thick, perfectly smooth layer of ice.

Got out of the driveway (thank all the Valar we'd never shovelled the snow away; snow's got grip) without a problem.

Got onto the road and... stayed put.

Couldn't go ahead, couldn't break, couldn't steer. You try getting up a hill on black ice.

Only thing that worked was rolling backwards (down the hill) and, by some amazing driving skillz, getting back into the driveway.

You can hardly walk on that road without flying.

So much for Corpus Linguistics.

*sighs* Well, the prof will have to accept this. I think this is certainly a case of force majeure. (Could walk to the bus station, and, assuming the main roads have already been cleared of ice, take the bus to Cologne. At this time I would be almost an hour late.
Can as well not go at all.)

Even the cats keep slipping.