I slept unusually well the night before and woke up feeling clear-headed and refreshed. The first thing I did in the morning was look out the window. No snow.
That was strange, because the forecast had said it would start snowing around midnight. I had barely finished thinking that when the phone rang. It was someone from the county office, asking whether it had snowed on our end and whether the roads were passable. I paused for a second and told them it didn’t look great—that the roads were slick, and the snow was only getting heavier.
He said, "Alright then," and that was the end of that.
So I got out of bed at my own pace, washed up, went out to buy a stuffed flatbread, brewed a cup of Tieguanyin, and had a cigarette after finishing the tea. For a brief moment, it really felt like life didn’t get much better than that.
Then the phone rang again.
Same people from the county.
This time he said they had already reached a nearby town and would probably arrive at ours around noon.
That was when my brain short-circuited a little. What exactly happened this morning? Who called me earlier? And what was the point of that first call?
Still, there wasn’t much to do except tell them to be careful, because the roads weren’t easy to travel.
The timing of it all was especially irritating. They could have come sooner or later, but no, it had to be on a snowy day. What bothered me most was that I had been planning to head home early that day. Now that was clearly going to be delayed.
Then I tried to make peace with it. If they showed up around noon, maybe they’d eat outside first and I could at least tag along for a free meal. After that, I could still head home in the afternoon. Thinking about it that way made the whole thing seem not so bad.
So I waited.
And waited.
By twelve o’clock, no one had shown up.
I called to ask, and they told me they were still in that other town. They said they’d probably come over in the afternoon, but first they had to go to another township before coming to ours.
That was the moment I really went blank.
This was not at all how I had pictured it.
There went the free lunch. And if they didn’t arrive until later, I’d probably end up heading back late too. The real problem wasn’t just the delay—it was the snow. Once it gets close to evening, the roads start icing over, and I still hadn’t switched to snow tires. There was no way I was going to risk driving under those conditions. At that point it felt like the whole day was done for.
While I was still sitting there waiting, our supervisor finally said, why don’t you head back first? You can ride with a coworker now. If you wait any longer, you might not make it back at all. He said he’d handle the inspection himself, and after it was over he could just continue on toward the county anyway since it was on the same route.
The second he said that, I knew he had finally voiced what I hadn’t dared say myself. I’d been thinking the same thing the whole time, but felt awkward bringing it up first. Once he opened the door, though, I wasn’t about to stand on ceremony. I hurried to contact my coworker and got out of there fast.
My home isn’t in the county seat, and there are only a few cars going my way. If I had waited any longer, I might have missed the chance entirely.
The funny part is that once we were on the road, there was basically no snow or ice left at all. By then I was already regretting not driving myself.
But that was only in hindsight. A few bad drives before had left me jumpy, and now every time it snows, I don’t dare touch the car. Then again, safety matters more than pride. What if the roads really had turned slick later in the day?
So yes, maybe I was overly cautious.
Still—better that than ending up in real trouble.