Two days ago the fields were white
for not harvest but snow and ice.
The cold front now is to the east
and we have rain and wind and heat
and flooded roads.
…………….. She drove the four-
wheel-drive Jeep Cherokee too fast
and aquaplaned into the ditch,
and then yelled S.O.B.! at him
for telling her it would be much
more safe than her blue Ford…
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Feb. 21, 2014
Views from the Edge 
These rapid changes of weather are the pits, literally, for the pits they produce in many road surfaces. However, aquaplaning can happen with any car on any road. The trick, of course, is to compensate, drive more slowly, and watch further ahead. Just hear me teach. I’m supposed to leave the preaching to you, Gordon.
Mom was a teacher before she married, and really never got over it, though her style was gentle when dealing with people. She could be quite severe when dealing with a loudspeaker in Corvettes in the Springfield shopping center. The store wanted you to take “avantage” of their sale in this or that department, and mom would say, emphasizing the “d”, “Advantage, advantage, the word has a “d” in it,” so sternly that her Sunday School students would not have known her.
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Carolyn, this memory strikes my funny bone. Your Mom, “Dotie” as my folks called her, was such a quiet, joyful soul. I love the picture of her “aDvantage! episode.
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