Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Still Catching my Breath

*whew*

Setting the stage ~~
Yesterday it precipitated something as I was coming home. It hit the windshield as water, but in my headlights it looked solider. Anyway, nothing noticeable was on the ground at home, but the vehicle windows needed scraping. And the temperature is just below freezing. Fortunately, the streets looked clear.

The Incident ~~
Our route for the morning commute follows NM 528 down from Rio Rancho and across the river. Some distance from the river are some railroad tracks. Just after those the street rises and in most cases you don't realize it's an overpass. I am very glad that the traffic was fairly light this morning because just as I had time to register that the road was shiny as I hit that hill / overpass, the car went into a skid. I managed to keep my foot off the brake. The Cruise Control was set for 35mph. I am glad that both hands were on the wheel. I am not certain, to this day, what they mean by turning in the direction of the skid. What I did was to turn it the other direction than where it was headed, back and forth. I hope I more or less kept it in the lane, but at least there weren't any cars coming up in the left lane. Dog was behind me as usual. However, THIS time he followed me all the way to my office (he usually does not make the turn I do, but goes a little farther before turning south on I-25's frontage road).

Aftermath~~
I was still breathing hard when I pulled into this parking lot. When I managed to get the Mustang parked (I had to back and fill twice), Dog was standing there. So the first thing I asked him was how bad did it look. He told me that he came to congratulate me on my smooth moves in pulling out of the skid -- and to ask if I was OK. I was OK, but I sure needed a hug.

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