Winter Driving by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Last Wednesday morning, like every weekday for the last month or so, I left the house before nine in the morning in order to give a cousin a ride. So, at about five minutes to the hour, when my phone rang, I was driving. I tried giving it to our cousin to answer, but he didn’t know about having to click on the “I’m not driving” button, the call went through to voicemail.

No matter.

I knew it was Konnie before I even glanced at the screen. It was Wednesday after all, and it was her turn to post. Konnie calling made sense.

As soon as I dropped him off, I called Konnie before I got on the road again. We talked, we posted (which I can do from my phone), and I returned home. No problem. No big deal. Pretty routine.

Until a few hours later when an old high school friend posted about roads being closed in southeastern Idaho due to a major storm blowing through. Konnie’s response was, “And my sister was driving in that?”

LOL!

Talk about showing how different we are!

And I’m not talking about the fact that I live in Idaho and she lives in Vegas, though that has something to do with it. It has to do with several things. Starting with the fact that Konnie learned to drive while she lived in Tennessee. I learned to drive right here in Idaho.

Konnie once went flying off an icy overpass, and now refuses to drive in any amount of snow. As a newlywed, I ended up in a ditch because of icy roads, but that hasn’t put me off driving in this kind of weather. I am cautious but not scared.

Konnie lives where snowfall would be national news. Around here, we can get snowstorms anywhere from October to April. Meaning, you either learn to drive in this stuff, or you head south for seven months out of the year, or like Konnie, permanently.

My final point is, Konnie seems to have forgotten how much further north our old high school friend lives. Southeastern Idaho isn’t a small area, and believe me, Pocatello never gets hit as hard as I.F., Rigby, and Rexburg. All towns at higher elevations and further north than here.

In other words, what our old high school friend was dealing with wasn’t anywhere near as bad as what I was dealing with, not even close.

In fact, said friend’s husband posted a picture of their snow-covered front yard over the weekend when here in Pocatello we were wondering if spring had come early. When I got home from church Sunday my yard was a muddy mess, when I got up Monday morning it was snowing again. Yeah, winter likes to play jokes on us.

And Konnie, it was barely even more than a skiff, so don’t panic, you know I can drive in this stuff!

At any rate, I got a good laugh last Wednesday, and so did our cousin when I told him about Konnie’s panic. We are so different.

Though I’d have to say that we were always very different, probably why I hate all those twins switching places stories. There is just no way. It wouldn’t work.

I would be lost in her world, and frankly couldn’t cope with all her problems, and she would be lost in mine. We couldn’t even manage switching places way back in grade school, because our routines were so different.

The one time we tried that, we were figured out within minutes. Today, it would be seconds, since her family can tell us apart. If Tom were still alive, he could tell us apart too. There is just no fooling them.

And, even if everyone we know didn’t know we’re twins, which they do know, I doubt we could pull one over on them, because well, I couldn’t pick all of Konnie’s friends out of a crowd any more than she could pick all of mine. Someone somewhere would figure it out.

Which is why I find all those twins switching places stories so unbelievable. It just wouldn’t work, not in the real world. All those minute details add up to a ton of chances to be found out.

Anyway, happy writing everyone, and safe driving!