Severe ice storm warning...time for bleach

Guess this is another dull day...we are under a severe ice storm warning until tomorrow morning. Freezing rain and sleet...just lovely. I am glad that my mom works at home and will not have to travel in it! She used to work at the phone company...she had to be there no matter what! (Kind of like the postal service.) She learned a neat trick to drive in ice though. Some friends of hers used to deliver vans to Colorado. They told her they dabbed bleach on the tread of their tires (all the way around, but not on the sides) and that this would give you little tiny suction holes on your tires and you would not slide. Usually in Texas you don't get much ice...so she never really thought about it again.

That is, until two years later! She was coming home one night from work and it was so slippery that the car just slid sideways. (The car slid to the curb even at5 miles an hour.) So she remembered what the older couple had told her. She parked it, walked to the corner store, and bought some bleach. She figured if it worked, great...if not, maybe she could at least get the car back to the office. She got back to the car and used a sponge to dab the bleach on the tread. Then she pulled the car forward and dabbed it on the portion of the tire that had been on the ground.

She was astonished, she got in the car and it did not slide at all!!! She decided to go ahead and attempt to drive the 30 miles home. She had to go up this hill on the way home...scary! People with chains on their tires and in 4x4's couldn't get up the hill...they kept sliding back down. Diesels were off in the ditch, they couldn't get any traction. (The hill had already been sanded, but it was extremely slippery!) Needless to say, she got many strange looks as she headed up the hill without any sliding and safely made it down the other side. Of course, she could only go about 10 miles an hour still. Since that experience she has always kept bleach in her car if the weather was going to be icy!So your tip for the ice is bleach!

However, I am glad she is home with me and doesn't have to go anywhere now. I like it better that way...if I am bored due to the weather, I like my mom here to keep me company!