[LMB] Ice, of the black variety

[Nicholas Russon]

> That's what the salt is supposed to do, isn't it? IIRC salt +
> water has a lower freezing point than water by itself, so adding
> salt to the ice melts it.

And if the nice folks at the Region had gotten out with the salt/sand trucks yesterday, I wouldn't have spent all morning at the dealership, finding out how much it was going to cost to fix my vehicle. I hit some black ice[1] last night, while I was bringing my son home from his soccer game. As the road curved left, we continued on straight, plowed across the opposing lane of the road, down into a ditch, up the other side, and then into a Hydro field. Fortunately for us, there were no nasty hidden solid objects along that path (starting with southbound cars and ending with a fence or other hard barrier).

The truck started up again, after we did a quick flashlight inspection, and (thanks to 4WD in low) I was able to extricate us without too much further problem. The technician took an hour this morning, spraying and digging mud out of the engine compartment before he could diagnose the problem: a mangled radiator (not leaking, just a bit . . . um . . . resculpted).

So, I'll have some $700 in my pocket when we arrive at Arisia on Friday. But at least we'll still be able to go.[2]
 
Regards,
Nicholas (the other one)

[1] Black ice, for those of you who haven't encountered the term, is well covered here: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mblackice.html 
I especially like this paragraph: "How can you tell if there's black ice on the road? The best way I know is to try to walk on
the
pavement before driving. If you fall on your ass for no apparent reason, you've got black ice
(or you've been drinking too much, in which case you shouldn't even think about driving). The
other way to tell is to count the number of cars in the ditch while muttering to yourself 'I wonder
why all those cars are in the ditch; it's not that slippery.'"

There were several cars in the ditch (or worse) further north . . . we had the honour of being the southernmost vehicle to encounter the ice.

[2] Any other listees going to be there?



Nicholas Russon
nrusson at rogers.com 
Weblog at http://www.bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness
Quotes site at http://www.quotulatiousness.ca