It's Ice Coated!

We were in Des Moines Saturday morning when we woke to a nice thick coating of ice on everything. Kim's mom got DSL hooked up last month, so at least I was able to check the interactive weather maps and see how things would be the rest of the day up through Minnesota. I figured we'd just wait and let the DOT trucks and the salt do their thing. Kim's sister and family took off earlier and called to let us know the roads were pretty good and they were doing 55 on I–35. We left after lunch and could do 70 or 80 because it was completely clear.

Getting into the car was the hardest part—trying to pound the ice with the heel of my hand without denting the metal or breaking the plastic, slowly fracturing it enough around the edges to allow the door to open. Turned the defrosters on high and loaded everything up before even trying to scrape the windows, then it came off easily all around the car. Her sister didn't do it that way. She was out there scraping like crazy. Which brings me to my annual Bad Steve story. He's her husband. She went through cancer this past Summer/Fall and is currently suffering a cold. When it came time for them to leave, he said, "why don't you pack up the car," which is what he says every xmas or other visit, but at xmas there's lots of extra shit to load up. He finally did go out and help with something after she yelled at him, but then he came back inside after just a few minutes, leaving her to finish scraping for 10 minutes or so. What a catch he was. Even if you're a lazy chauvinist, in this day and age, wouldn't you at the very least try to act civil around your wife or girlfriend's family? I've never been able to understand why he wants to look like a dick to her mom and the rest of her family. He'll even laugh about it, as if to say, "ha ha! See how I've turned your daughter into my slave! I make her do everything for me!" I humbly accept being known as Good Steve, which is how Kim's brother differentiated between the 2 Steves.