Okay, if anyone drops in here this morning hoping for a report from Tribeca last night... sorry. I didn't make it. And I'm pretty disappointed about it, since the special guest was Jason Heywood of The Divorcees and I had really been looking forward to hearing him.



Okay, here's the story. The forecast all day was for snow (5-10 cm) changing to rain in the evening, and by the time I left work the temperature (which was something like -15 with a windchill of about -30 on Monday--which is why I didn't go to the barn Monday night) was rising noticeably. There was some snow in the afternoon, the fluffy stuff, but that had changed into little picky snow by the time I got home.

I hadn't been to the barn for a few days owing to road conditions and so on, which meant I really did think I was due for a visit. (Winter horsekeeping on someone else's property can turn into a tug-of-war between wanting to see my horse and not wanting to end up stuck in a ditch on a tertiary road in a snowstorm, you know?) So I got home from work--probably should have left early, as things turned out--and immediately changed and started out to the barn.

The main road, Dunbrack to Kearney Lake, was clear but wet as I left my place, so I stayed a little below the speed limit and braked well in advance of lights, but it was all right. I noticed the opposite lane, which would be getting less traffic at this time of day (people were heading from Halifax out of town, not the other way) was snow-covered in places so I made a note for the trip home.

The snow was wet and still falling in small flakes as I left Hammonds Plains Road for the Lucasville Road, which is the one that tends to get bad in snowy conditions. Still all right, but by the time I turned off Sackville Drive into the subdivision that's grown up around the barn those roads were getting greasy. I was glad to be alone on the road because I was well under the speed limit (and I was glad the speed limit on Sackville has been lowered due to some unfinished road work, because 50 clicks was as fast as I wanted to go anyway.)

So, Mitzi. I didn't even take her blanket off because I had the feeling I should not stay. I gave her an apple, brought her into the alleyway, cleaned her feet and put dressing around her coronet bands. The crack... looks exactly the same as it has since I noticed it right after the New Year. It hasn't spread, and the phantom vertical hairline crack also looks exactly the same as it did. The vertical bit is no longer and certainly no wider. It sort of looks, really, you know the way a fingernail gets when there's a flaw in it and it flakes a little? It looks to me like the vertical business is superficial and might lead to a limited bit of top-layer flaking in the area right around the crack.

The crack itself looks like a scar or something: it's completely dry and stable and old-looking, like something that has done all it intends to do and unless something drastic and unrelated happens, it'll just keep looking exactly as it does until it grows out. It looks, as I have been saying, like a flaw in the hoof from that coronet injury (tiny as that was) that has been contained by the healthy hoof wall around it. Like that one small place didn't form right but nothing else is in bad shape or involved at all.

Which would be a great thing.

Mind you, even if the ground was not frozen and icy, I would not be longeing her right now. Because the way I figure it, working hard in circles is exactly the sort of thing that might provoke a thing like this to spread. I mean, direct concussion is not what this needs.

So: continuing to keep an eye on it, but at this point it looks like nothing needs to be done.

I couldn't have been in the barn more than twenty minutes. As I was putting away the hoof dressing, another boarder arrived to check on her horse. (A while back I posted about one of our gang having a serious health issue. This is the one, and she's doing great.) She remarked that the roads were getting greasy and she sounded a little worried. Since she drives a Jeep, I decided if she was worried, I was worried. So we both left together.

When I got to the foot of the driveway I could see that conditions had gotten noticeably worse just in that short time. And they continued to deteriorate all the way home: Kearney Lake was completely snow-covered and at one point I actually hit the shoulder following wheel tracks from a previous vehicle. I got back onto the pavement without incident but I did allow myself to swear a little bit at the guy behind me, who was right on my tail. He had numerous opportunities to pass but didn't, so it's not like he seemed to want to go faster, he just wanted to ensure that if I had to brake he would end up in my back seat.

Honest to fuck, some people should have their citizenship revoked in the winter. Where do you think you live, dude?

The tailgater was really not a problem except for the one intersection I went through where I couldn't tell what lane I was in (by this time the road was totally snow-covered and lane markers were just not visible) and I had to slide from what turned out to be the left-turning lane into the straight-ahead lane without a lot of warning. No incidents, but the car behind me turned off a few seconds later and I was relieved. There is just no reason to be that close to the car in front of you when the conditions are that bad. (Also, the one person pulling out of their driveway and trying to nose into oncoming traffic--come on! It was a stretch where you could see headlights coming for miles, and it's not like anyone on a highway is likely to stop and let you out. Don't be urging cars to swerve around you when all you need to do is wait ten seconds for the two cars to get by!)

At this point I was at the long hill where Kearney Lake turns off toward the Bedford Highway and Dunbrack Street continues straight ahead. The light at the intersection was turning red so I started to brake gently at the top of the hill.

And the car slid.

And I let off the brake and braked gently again, gearing down at the same time, and we slid again for a second and then I could feel the tires (I have winter tires) grip and we stopped. Whew.

At that point I reiterated a previous remark to God along the lines of "if we get home safely now, I promise I won't push my luck by going back out tonight."

The car on my right was in the turning lane and I hadn't seen him slide, but as the light changed he accelerated past me up Dunbrack, so he either got lost because he couldn't see lane markers or got into that lane as part of a slide of some sort. Anyway, Dunbrack has a lot of traffic but it didn't seem to have much effect on the snow cover. By that time we were nearly home and all the other cars were being as careful as I was, so I got over into the leftmost lane and eventually turned off onto my street. Tippytoed past a few parked cars into my lot. Breathed a sigh of relief.

By about ten o'clock I could hear rain on the windows, but there was no was I was going back out--it was as likely to be freezing rain as anything, and I had no interest in pressing my already-well-used luck on slushy roads on that hill heading down toward Bedford Highway and incidentally the harbour. So after supper I went for a walk on the treadmill (and I think I need some new footgear for that, my old sneakers are pretty much done for) and then went to bed.

As I say, I was sorry to miss the set at Tribeca, but I went on the theory that a live fan is more use to Adam and Rob than a dead one. And after her getting me home safely it would have been ungrateful to take Silver back out and wreck her.

So: no musical report, but Mitzi's foot looks all right, and for once I think I may have shown good judgement. Always a first time!