Slip Sliding Away!

  I, and probably a lot of other people, started
checking out the weather predictions for Monday
as early as Sunday morning. By late Sunday night
several area schools had posted delays or even
cancellations.
   Small amounts of snow don't raise many
eyebrows around these parts. But mention Sleet,
Freezing Rain, or Ice and you get a lot of
attention. You certainly get mine! Although
I'm not sure I could tell which of those three
are falling when I try to go up a slippery hill!
I just know the hill is slippery!
   Monday is the day I head to Scranton to do
my weekly TV program with Judge Tom Munley
on Electric City Television. I had forewarned
his honor that slick roads might keep me out of
the picture (TV picture that is) if things got too
bad out there.
   But forecasts are a little like sports predictions.
All the data shows what should happen in a
particular game. But there's no guarantee it will
happen or, even if it does, when it will happen!
    That's why I decided to let technology go to
work to see if I should!
     Minutes before I was scheduled to leave I
called up the State Department of Transportation
on my laptop and clicked on "Traffic Cameras."
The state has a mess of these candid cameras set
up along major highways so you can tell if there's
a "mess" in your area. Those along my route
showed traffic on the move. So I did, Move that is.
     Thankfully the images I saw were "Live", not
re-runs, and the going was truly good!
      Penndot also had it's fleet on the move and my
journey proved to be an easy one. At least going.
      The predicted Sleet (or Freezing Rain, or Ice)
started showing up on the roads I use as I headed
home. Of course the Traffic Cams wouldn't have
helped very much then because, what ever they
showed, I had to come back. There were a couple
spots where I felt my car wanted to go in a
direction other than the one I was steering. A bit
of that "slip sliding away" as the title implies!
       I made it of course, as the publication of today's
blog suggests. And I have to admit the cameras were
a help. Maybe I can get them to put one on the road
to my house so I can decide if it's worth even going
outside. On the other hand....maybe I can just look
out the window and make that decision!
      Hope you got where you had to go and back and
that all your NEWS is good!