THIS IS A COPY OF AN EMAIL THAT I WROTE TO A FELLOW STUDENT AND CO-WORKER.

Hey Jeff, did you make it to class?

I left the apartment at 5 am and I used my Becker Conviser ruler to determine that three inches of snow were on the ground.  It took me about 20 minutes to drive eight miles and that was going faster then road conditions allowed.  I just wanted to get to the interstate, then I was going to make a go, no-go decision.  It was bad, I couldn’t even see the elevated concrete pad that runs down the middle of 119.  I got back on Aflex road and drove back to the office.  I thought,, “Known the Rossetti-factor, watch me have an accident on the way back”.  Aflex road is the worst rode to drive on when weather conditions are bad because there are no guardrails.  If you go off the road, you hope a tree will stop you before you plummet into the river.

Well on the way back I stopped at the rail road crossing and by the time I counted 23 rail-road cars, I had to turn my wipers on to clear the snow from the front windshield (the train was moving at a good clip).  When the train cleared the tracks, I thought my parking break was on because I could not go.  Yet the parking break was off, the car was in first gear and the reason why was because of snow build-up.

I was a half-mile from the office and I pondered what was making these tracks in the snow that were going down the middle of the road.  Just then I saw what it was, it was a goose.  I am not joking, it was a white, yellow beck, with red eyes.  Of course, I hit the brakes, but I could not stop in time because I did not see it until the last minute due to the falling snow and it was camouflaged in with the snow.  I knew I was going to hit, I even said aloud, “Sorry buddy.”  I took my foot off the brake - I did not want to stop on top of it.  I was going five miles-an-hour but it was so slick, ABS could not do a thing about it.  The goose quacked once while it was trying to run forward, just before the left headlight knocked it across the head.   The next thing that I heard was it banging off the bottom of the Jetta.  This was one big goose, its head was at head-light level.  I was going to get out, but there were two dogs right there on the road, not to mention I did not want someone to hit me.  I drove down the road and narrowly missed another dog.

What in the world was a goose doing on the road in the winter time?  Don’t they migrate?  When I saw whose house I was in front of, I knew who it and the dogs belonged to.  I now recall seeing the goose in front of Jennifer’s yard when I was down here in the summer.  Then I remember who’s daughter lived there, it was Don Blankenship’s daughter, Jennifer – the CEO of Massey Energy

When I got back, there was 4.25 inches of snow, 1.25 inches fell in less then an hour.

Rocco