We weren’t expecting that

Wednesday, December 30, 2025

Sometimes you take a picture of a lunch of fantastic sandwiches, assuming it will be the picture of the day. What else could be the POTD? We were driving home from Madison – not really a picture-worthy endeavor.

Then you drive through cold, sunny skies from Madison to the Dells. Then it starts to mist – such fine mist that you can’t see it anywhere except on your windshield. Then the mist freezes and obscures your vision, creating the POTD. Your windshield wiper fluid clears the glass. It helps! – for the first pass, the second pass, then it freezes again for three and four. Mmm. This can’t last, you think. We will heat up the window! Defrost! Defrost!

The defrost somehow just clears the bottom four inches of the windshield. Mmmm.

We drove on, squish, squish, scrape, scrape. The road wasn’t icy, but there was a lot of traffic and lots of brake lights. It was not pleasant. I was really helping by smashing my right foot against the floor of the car. I did keep most of my fear squeaks to myself. I suggested we stop for windshield washer fluid at an easy off/on gas station. I went to the bathroom and there were six people in line with washer fluid. I passed two more on my way out. Keith put in half a gallon. We were definitely not going to run out. He said he saw a lady buying three gallons – way to make sure not everyone gets some!

On we went – swish swish scrape scrape – push the button for fluid – repeat. The road got worse. Not bad, but spots of ice and snow. Just south of Eau Claire, as we were creeping along with a full road of many semis and many cars. Keith suggested we stop. I checked all the weather reports for all the towns. Everywhere said the same – in two hours precipitation (or as I kept saying “participation”) would be done. I called Emma in Menomonie and asked for a port from the storm. They were home and we were welcome.

We definitely breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a long time of not being able to see and we were ready for a break.

Then the drizzle stopped. As we went past Eau Claire, we stopped the wipers. Oooooo quiet! We thought we’d be okay! We were out of the storm. We got to Menomonie and texted we would keep going to maximize our daylight minutes. We were relaxed as we found a not-trafficky bit of road to climb the Knapp hill. We got to the top, breathed another sigh of relief, and started the wipers again because the drizzle came back. It stopped once we were in Woodbury. We stopped for milk and just drove home like it was just a regular day.

OH! I also got a one on Wordle! Special day!