#snowscraper | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lightblueminecraftorchid · 5 months ago

Text

Are you experiencing snow and icy roads for the first time? Do you feel anxious about having to drive to work or the store? Do you have a ton of snow on your car and don’t know how to clear it off? This post is for you!

As a certified Michigan Girlie™️, I have several years of experience in driving in the snow. Here is a quick guide to driving safely on snowy and icy roads.

Step 1: Clearing Off Your Car

Tools: Snowscraper with brush attachment, OR broom and smth to chip ice off (spoon, brush, sheer force of will, etc)

- Check to make sure your exhaust pipes are not covered or blocked by snow. If they are, clear them off with a brush or your GLOVED hands. Once they are clear, start your car and turn the heat to full blast. If your car has a defrost setting, turn your heat to that setting. Otherwise, aim your vents as close to your front windshield as possible.

- Leaving your car on, exit the car and shut the door. You want that heat circulating. Then, using the flat end of your scraper (or the handle of your broom) break up the snow. The piles on the top of your car have probably solidified slightly into an icy mass, and this won’t brush off easily. Pierce the snow pile and push the scraper/broom handle to the other side of your car, then sweep it back and forth over the top of your car. Go all the way down to both ends of the car.

- Once the snow is broken up and your broom handle/scraper meets no significant resistance, begin to brush off the snow, using the brush attachment or your broom. Work from the top down, and clear all of it off. Do not leave snow on the top of your car; this snow can fly off and become a hazard to other drivers. Give special attention to your front and back windshield, your mirrors, and your lights. If a thin layer of ice is frozen onto non-window/mirror locations and won’t budge, leave it.

- Once the snow is mostly gone, now is the time to chip at your ice. In order to drive safely, all of your windows and mirrors should be clear. Hopefully your car is nice and hot on the inside now and is melting the ice from underneath. Chip away any ice or frost obstructing your windows or mirrors, and brush away the remaining chips.

- Check behind your car and make sure your path is clear to back out of your parking spot. You may need to shovel a path.

- If at any point your clothes get wet from snow and you can feel the wetness, go inside and take the wet clothes off. Switch to dry clothes and warm up before going back out. If at any point you feel cold and it turns to stabby or prickly pain, go inside and warm up until you are not cold. Frostbite is no joke. This especially applies to gloves.

- Go inside your nice toasty car and make sure you can see out of all the windows and mirrors. If they’re wet and you can’t see out of them, dry them off with a towel. Try your windshield wipers to make sure they can move and aren’t iced over; if they can’t, clear them off as best as you can.

Step 2: Driving on the roads

- When planning your route, pick one that has as few turns and stops as possible, and try to stick to main roads. These are more likely to have traffic/maintenance and therefore less likely to be iced over.

- Leave earlier than you think you have to. You will drive slower than normal, so expect your route to take more time. Make peace with the fact that you might be late. Such is life.

- Go slow. Whatever you think the speed limit is, subtract 20mph (excepting residential roads where the speed limit is lower than that).

- Coasting is your friend. If you can slow down without braking, do that. If you can slowly coast without stopping, do that. Every time you stop, you’ll need to regain traction on the road before you can move, and that takes time. Be extra careful at stops and turns, and do not turn or start driving from a stop if there’s any chance of oncoming traffic hitting you if you’re too slow.

- If you brake and your car shudders/stutters before stopping, that’s normal. Your brakes aren’t broken, they’re stuttering to gain traction and stop you quickly. It feels scary but you’re fine. Give yourself extra time and space to brake.

- If you slip on the ice and lose traction, turn your steering wheel in the direction your car is sliding. It feels counterintuitive, but this will realign your wheels and let you regain control of your car faster.

- Give yourself plenty of following distance. Now is not the time to tailgate. You want padding in case your car loses traction or won’t brake quickly. Other drivers are just as scared as you, and won’t necessarily behave typically on the road. Give yourself space in case someone else can’t brake or loses traction.

Step 3: You’re gonna be fine

- I know this feels scary. The first time driving on ice is gonna feel weird and unfamiliar. Give yourself grace. As long as you drive slow, keep following distance, and stay alert, you’ll be fine.

- You’re gonna make a mistake at some point. You’re gonna blow a stop sign, or brake too quickly, or lose traction. This is normal. Make peace with that now. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad driver, it means you’re learning a new skill. These tips are to make sure any mistakes that happen don’t hurt you or other drivers.

- You got this

#blue chatter #winter driving #winter driving guide

11 notes · View notes

keen2meecha · 5 years ago

Photo

Daybreak /|\ Prologue

(An introduction to the main four characters and the world at large)

It starts like this:

Two figures, locked in battle. One tall and raven-haired, the other small with hair like the golden sun itself. Every clash of their staffs rings out, betraying them to be made of metal rather than wood - impossible to know based on appearance alone, given the impeccable paint and intricate detail work that decorated them both. The raven wears a twisted grin, while the sun bares her teeth viciously. It’s rather like a dance - one partner steps forward, one backward. Come together, spring apart. One brings the staff down, the other raises theirs to block the blow. Together. The one who blocks tenses and bends their elbows, then shoves the other back a step. Apart. The raven brings the staff down, and the sun rolls into a somersault off to the side to dodge the hit.

“Tell me a story,” The raven says.

The sun grunts and rolls back to her feet. She resets her stance, then says, “There was once nothing but light. And in that light grew the first life.”

The raven charges, the sun swings her staff. The resounding clang as it hits the raven’s staff rings through the ever-autumn forest clearing.

Together.

“But under that life, in the eternal light, came shadows - the first darkness.”

The raven shoves her back, then swings for her head. She barely manages to lean back from the blow.

Apart.

“At first, the light welcomed the dark. It had been alone for so long. The life below had begun to avoid it, bored and pained by its eternity. But the dark, being so new and so opposite, found the light beautiful beyond words.”

Together.

“One day, it asked to share the light’s burden. Perhaps, if they alternated the everlasting watch over the world, life below would grow to love them again. The light, intrigued by this new idea and eager to please its new friend, agreed.”

Apart.

“Thus, the first day and the first night were created.”

It starts like this:

A girl and her friends, creeping through a library. Though the clocks inform them that it is nighttime, long past closing time, the sun still shines outside as if it were midday.

“I dunno about this,” One of the friends whispers, peering about nervously.

“Chill, due,” The girl replies, rolling her eyes. “It’ll be fine - we’re like two days out from graduation. They can’t expel us now.”

“I know several who would disagree,” Another friend says, but he sounds unconcerned. “Not like you care about that, eh Roxy?”

“Don’t call me that,” She snaps. There’s a brief moment interspersed with the others’ giggles, then she sighs in resignation. “Why wouldn’t I care?”

“Because you’re still mad that your application to Axial Academy was rejected.”

“It wasn’t rejected - it’s just gone unanswered.” Her tone is insistent, but it’s clear that they’ve all had this discussion more than once already.

“Uh-huh, sure.”

“Let’s just find what we came for and get out, okay?”

They scatter at her sharp tone, afraid in the way they hadn’t been earlier. She scowls and pushes her way to the back, ignoring their whispers and giggles. When she reaches the section labeled restricted she doesn’t hesitate. She pulls two pins out of her mass of bright red waves and bends down. After a moment of fiddling, the lock springs open. She smirks and strolls in, wholly unaware of how much she looks like her least-favorite uncle as she surveys the bookcases. It takes a moment before she finds the section she is looking for, clearly labeled as Alchemy.

Hidden between the bookcases, her cockiness fades into something more wistful and nostalgic. She reached one fingerless-gloved hand out, brushes it along the spines of the books until she reaches one in particular. This, the very thing that has driven her for years, the last task given to her by her father, the mission that has taken her so far from all that she loves, right here in her grasp-

“Stop!”

“Time went on - for there was time now, in this world with alternating light and dark. During this time, as the light and dark grew closer, they began to blend, until the day was divided into four segments: dawn, day, twilight, and night.”

Together

“At first, these were equal segments. But the peace could not hold forever. The night began to grow jealous - the life below always came out and enjoyed the dawn, the day, the twilight. But when it was night’s turn, they hid away inside, unused to and unable to live in the darkness.”

Apart

“The day attempted to create nocturnal life to appease its friend; twilight and dawn shortened their time to give the night more time; light crept into the dark, creating the moons and stars.”

Together

“Life finally began to pay attention, but they cared not for the dark. They only wanted to look at this new light. They admired it, told stories about it, painted and sang and danced for it. The darkness’ rage grew, until one day it declared that it wished it never joined the light, and the light replied that that had been the darkness’ choice.”

Apart

“Hurt and enraged, the darkness withdrew.”

It starts like this:

A girl is running. She’s on a beach. Behind her, there are flames and shouting and a home she can never return to. Ahead of her is the ever-rising sun and a horizon of possibilities.

She aches to go back.

She can’t go back.

She will have to find somewhere safe. She doesn’t know where that will be. She will have to find people who will welcome her without questions. She doesn’t know who that will be. It has to be soon. The fire won’t distract them for long. Not long enough, at least. And now they know. That it was her, that she’s left - for good. There’s a target on her back, one that won’t go away just by lying low and hoping for the best. She knows this, but she only has so many tricks.

She’ll survive, in the end. It’s what she’s best at; surviving, no matter the cost.

No matter the loss.

She just wishes it isn’t so quick to feel familiar.

Together

“The world below shook and splintered.”

Apart

“Desperate to keep the balance, twilight and dawn attempted to reconnect the two. And in their attempts, they stopped flowing together.”

Together

“This is how our world came to be as it is: not a progression of dawn to day to twilight to night, but static.”

Apart

“Eternal night on one side, eternal day on the other. The dawn ever-present and the twilight ever-present between them, desperate to prevent the darkness’ revenge.“

The raven sweeps in aiming the staff for the sun’s throat. He moves as a blur, nearly too quick to see. But the sun reacts nearly as quickly, bringing her hand up just in time to catch the staff in one hand. The raven pauses, thrown off-guard, and it gives the sun just enough time to sweep her leg under his. He falls to the ground, and by the time he recovers she has both of their staffs pointed at his throat.

The clearing is silent but for their panting. The raven has his hands raised, and the sun is glaring. Then something shifts, and they both relax with matching grins.

“Not bad, kid,” The raven says, sitting up with a wince. “But you forgot something.”

“What’s that?”

“The Fragments.”

“What?! That’s not a part of the story!”

“It’s the most important part - we’ve been over this.”

“Well, excuse me for being a bit distracted.”

“Ha, that’s alright. We can cover it next time. For now, it’s getting late - let’s get inside.”

“Ooh, did I earn dessert?”

“Sure.”

“Yes!” The sun pumps her fist as she cheers, then races into the cabin on the edge of their clearing.

The raven snorts, shakes his head and mutters, “Damn bundle of energy,” then follows her in.

Neither of them notice the way the shadows grow just a little longer, stretching spindly fingers towards the cabin.

It starts like this:

A girl trudges through the dark city, snow falling gently from the sky. She shivers and gathers her layers closer around her body. Anywhere else they would be far too thick, but in this eternal winter they’re almost painfully thin. Her head is lowered so that her cloud of white hair hides her dark face. There’s a bandage around her throat, the cleanest thing on her person.

People in the street - for there are people in the street, it’s late morning despite the lack of sun - stop to point and whisper and debate offering her help. But she pays them no mind. She knows where she needs to go, where she needs to be. Perhaps not where she wants to be. But where she’ll go nonetheless.

It’s her duty.

Her booted feet crunch quietly in the snow. It was thicker on the outskirts of the city, but the snowscrapers prioritize the center of the city. So when her feet finally land on damp stone, she lifts her head.

Giant silver gates rise up before her, flanked by two helmeted figures. She raises a trembling hand, reaches out to touch the metal - but her legs give out before she can make contact. She falls to her knees, hunching over and wrapping her arms around her torso.

“Ma’am?” One of the figures ask. “Are you alright?”

“Of course she’s not alright,” The other replies sharply, and there’s the crunch of approaching footsteps before the figure kneels before her. “Ma’am, can you tell me - oh Light above.”

“What is it? Jing?”

“Contact the Caldwell sector!”

“What? Why-”

“Just do it!”

A weight drapes itself across her back, and she’s quick to pull it closer. She’s made it. She’s made it. She’s made it.

The Caldwell heiress has come home.

Hey, y’all, sorry for the repost! The original post didn’t work on tumblr for some reason? So I’m hoping it’ll work this time around! Shoutout to Hunter for making me aware of this issue!!

Taglist: (lmk if you wanna be added or removed!): @cilly-the-writer, @kiyotaki, @magic-is-something-we-create, @indeliblewrites, @linariouswrites

#daybreak #keen 2 share #akjhfjdkhaj i hope this is worth the trouble #can't believe i finally had my first real tumblr snafu #everyone let's hope it works this time #edit: legit forgot to add the read more l m a o

27 notes · View notes