not nonplussed = plussed?

Taking a page from one of the better personal blogs I read, it might be time to start telling stories about the field. I've got some recent ones that aren't too terribly incriminating and then I'll probably jump around chronologically until I get caught up. Unfortunately, the more I think about them, the harder it is to convey what happened, or at least in such a way that makes it seem like a compelling story, unless you know what it's like. But what the hell, I'll try anyway.

Yesterday, I went with a couple guys to round-trip some trucks. In case I haven't explained it before, round-trip means we're taking trucks to a location before a job or bringing them back from a location after a job. This would not be immediately before or after a job, but anywhere from several hours to a couple days from the time of a job. Typically, this would be the day before and/or after a job. The reason for this usually has to do with being short-handed, though various other reasons come into play. Regardless (or is that irregardless) we were trying to get out there before we lost the last of the daylight. At least this particular location was relatively close, though we still needed to chain-up the trucks.

The fun began after we were done with the initial task. We decided to jump over to another location where we had left trucks the previous day. By the time we got there, the sun had already set and we were losing the last of our daylight. At least the trucks were out on Hwy 550, the main road to get down to Albuquerque from here. The problem was that a storm was rolling in and we were up over the 7000' elevation mark and had quite a ways to go before we'd be under the 5500' level where it does a whole lot less snowing.

Night driving in a snowstorm is pretty terrible. At least the storm had just started and there was no build-up on the road so traction wasn't a big issue. However, I could feel the crosswinds pulling at the truck. Driving the pick-up at the front of the convoy, I had a hard time seeing more than a couple car lengths anytime we crested a ridge. It wasn't that it was snowing especially hard, but that the wind was swirling and the flurries were maddeningly blinding. About halfway in, I was glad that a couple cars passed us, but then didn't go much faster than us. I picked up the pace and followed their taillights to town. My plan was that if any animal got onto the road between them and me, I was planning to hit it. It's pretty ill-advised to swerve for an animal when that carries a pretty good chance of losing control and crashing your vehicle.

The thing that nagged me during the drive in was the last time I was drove at night in a snowstorm a couple weeks ago. We were up in Colorado and there was a fair bit of accumulation on the highway. We we're climbing a hill and the road was turning slightly to the right. I'm still not certain what happened, but I think it went something like this. When the hill became steeper, the pick-up downshifted automatically. The extra torque caused the tires to slip and all of a sudden I was sliding across the road. At least I had the presence of mind to stay off the breaks and gas, but I didn't remember to de-clutch (or in this case, shift to neutral since it was an automatic). I doubt that would have helped because of how fast it went on me. In the space of about a second, I went from driving just fine to nearly crashing. (No, 4WD was not engaged, but you should know that that would not have helped. Please keep in mind that 4WD is not AWD.) What an unwanted rush. I got myself back together pretty quickly, but I can hardly be nonplussed about the whole matter.

Irregardless or all that, let's end on a lighter note and keep a little inside joke going for those who already know and those who pay attention when reading.

"Inflmmable means flammable? What a country!"