it's very fitting that december started off with some light snow. it doesn't snow that often here so it's really something special, especially because after a snow is one of the only times you can see blue skies this time of year. when it snows it's as if the clouds throw themselves on the ground and leave holes in the otherwise perpetually overcast sky. because of the rarity everyone always gets caught unprepared, like me living out in the outrageously hilly outskirts of town with tires so bald they're off the norwood scale. but it was a light snow so by the late afternoon everything looked pretty much navigable again thanks to melting and other cars clearing the way with the tracks. i watched the progress anxiously as today was the appointed day of one of my biweekly arcade visits (i will let the reader choose if by this i mean "twice a week" or "once every two weeks") which i absolutely had to go through with. as i got on the road, i wondered what i was even worried about because by that point it was just a little bit damp.

everything was just as i had feared on the return trip several hours later though, when all the water on the road had time to freeze in the cold darkness. on even tiny inclines i watched cars in front of me slide around like butter in a hot pan, and then even felt myself lose control at several points. that was on the flat parts, too. then came the first big hill: as i crawled up, i saw a line of headlights coming down, spaced out like they were social distancing, creeping along at under half the speed limit. what a difference compared to how people normally drive down that hill. then i took the turn, and faced the steepest hill. the burly car in front of me gingerly ascended, sliding to and fro across the width of the road. i decided i was not about that life and parked the car at the bottom of the hill.

from there i walked the remaining mile home, which took a lot longer than usual because the route was both dark and extremely treacherous since there was also ice on the sidewalk. i was also wearing shorts but i didn't really mind. it felt eerily quiet without any cars out driving or people around. the whiteness of the snow covering everything contrasting with the dark somehow adds to the effect. things didn't feel dead, just subdued, hibernating. theoretically people were all still out there cocooned in the houses around me, but this was only evident to me from the gentle hum of heating units or the dim flickering glow of the television screen in a window. somehow i made it home without slipping or getting hypothermia.