Sunday, February 17, 2008

Friction Experiments

Kids do science experiments for their schoolwork that simulate no-friction or low-friction. Today the grown-ups get to play with concepts of no-friction.

At 7:00, the deacon at my daughter's church called to get her correct phone number. They're canceling church. It's not the roads so much as it is the parking lot. The pastor's and deacon's cars -- when stopped and parked -- were still sliding across the parking lot. So much for friction between the tires and the asphalt! The rain on top of our snow and the melting have made quite things quite slick. Combine that with the freezing that will be coming later in the day, and it's going to be bad this evening when Philip is due to come home from work.

There's over 2" of water out behind the van. It's the low spot of the driveway that passes in front of church, and the piles of snow & ice prevent the rainwater from going further downhill. I moved the van out of the deep puddles to the spot where Philip's car had been parked earlier, and I managed not to hit our car that was parked in the neighboring spots.

When Gary went over to church this morning, he only hit the ground (and the puddles) once. But that was when he was already aware of how slick it was, and he was walking shuffling with extreme caution.

The church parking lot isn't on toooo much of a slant, but there's a definite incline down to the parking lot from the road. Because of that (in addition to people being able to make it safely from their cars into the church building) the elders have chosen to notify people of the situation, which probably means our family will be the only ones at church today.

When I awoke early this morning, I decided to do the week's grocery shopping before church this morning, anticipating being snowed in later today and tomorrow. I guess I'll stay home and be creative about using up the groceries that are here and making do without potatoes and apples and flour. I don't want to do my own friction experiments with my vehicles.

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