What’s fine?

The definition of the word fine according to Merriam-Webster means several things.

Alright – That’s fine with me.
Well or healthy: not sick or injured – I feel fine.
Superior in kind, quality, or appearance – A fine job, a fine day, fine wines.
Very thin in gauge or texture – Fine thread, fine sand, fine print, fine edge of a knife, fine judgment.
Delicate, subtle, or sensitive in quality, perception, or discrimination – Fine distinction, fine writing, fine manners.

This one I added on my own. If you ever have an argument with a woman and she says, “fine” you should worry. It means the total opposite of fine. “Whatever” is an even bigger one to worry about. Whatever is a nice way of saying “fuck it I am done!” 🤬. That is a whole separate blog post though.

I must have heard the word “fine” 10 times already this morning. I wanted to head over to Cambridge, NY to pick up a few necessary things at Walgreens and drop off a thank you gift I made for my friends Maria & Jon for all their help with my blog.

Just as I was getting ready to leave, I looked outside and it was snowing, again. The roads were just slightly covered and I said, “Dammit! It’s snowing!” Marty replied, “You’ll be fine.”

My fear of driving in the snow goes back at least 25 years. I hate driving in the first place but put snow, sleet, or freezing rain into the mix and it is almost paralyzing to me. It’s not so much that I am worried about myself since we’ve had always had vehicles or tires that are good in the snow. It’s those overconfident assholes that are going way too fast. They are either passing cars, fishtailing, or up my ass.

Many people don’t know that just a dusting of snow can be more slippery than a couple of inches. In addition, you can’t see what’s lurking under the snow. Our driveway is a sheet of ice under the dusting of snow. I almost went down coming out our back door.

Then there is this little gem out there that is supposed to help people remember how to drive in snowy conditions, “White you are alright, brown slow down.” They are referring to packed white snow as opposed to a brown slushy mess.

“Why the hell do you live in VT if you don’t like snow?” “It’s the other three seasons that I love, thank you very much.” Everyone who chooses to live in the Green Mountain State doesn’t have to like winter or cold weather outdoor activities. Ca-peech? Being said in my best Jersey accent.

Capisce?” is American pseudo-Italian slang for “understand?” and functions rather like “know what I mean?” In Italian this form would be used only in a formal setting; the typically casual American-style contexts would require capischi.

Back to my trip to Cambridge. “Your vehicle is great in the snow,” Marty told me. He would know because he used our delivery van with studded snow tires for 500-mile delivery loops in the winter for the first two years of our business.

Keeping that in mind I got to Walgreens, which is a 20-minute ride on main roads. The NY roads were better than the Vermont ones, hardly covered at all.

I did my shopping and when I was checking out, it was snowing like a bastard and even Route 22 was covered. Well, Jon and Maria only live a few miles up Route 22, I would be “fine” I told myself.

Maria was surprised that I drove in the snow. I told her that our van is “fine” in the snow since we have studded tires. I did share with her that I was out of my comfort zone.

I asked Maria how Jon was doing, he had an accident on Friday. Oh, he’s “fine.” I asked, “Is he really “fine,” or is that what he is saying?” She said no he wasn’t injured at all even though the accident was terrifying almost rolling his car into a water-filled ravine. Only one tire and some rocks saved the car from rolling over. Thank God he is ok and had so many community members come to his immediate aid. Small town living perk for sure.

We only chatted for a few minutes because I was getting more and more anxious about my ride back to Arlington.

As I made my way home I didn’t take any of my usual shortcuts to Route 313, I stayed on Route 22. Right at the intersection of 22 & 313, there was an accident. There were lots of cars and emergency vehicles. I was able to turn left onto 313 and continue my way home.

The rescue squad radio in the van kept reporting of cars off the roads and accidents galore. Marty has been an EMT on Arlington Rescue since 2000, along with our son Sam who joined when he was 14. There are radios in all our vehicles and rooms of our house.

I could feel myself begin to tighten up and I was getting more and more nervous. “Dammit, Julz you are fine!” Then this piece started writing itself in my head. I realized as I was almost home that getting my mind off of driving in the snow and writing instead made the ride “fine.”

When I got home I told Marty the roads were bad. “No, they weren’t, they were fine and so were you,” “Oh really you don’t say,” I asked him if he heard all the accidents on the rescue squad radios. He said he didn’t. We have a hundred radios all over the place, and he didn’t have one to listen to? “Fine,” I thought.

So what I realized is one person’s fine is completely different from another person’s, even in the same situation. This is especially when someone is drunk off their ass and they say, “I’m fine!” The more they try to convince others, the drunker they are.

The roads may be fine if you have the proper vehicle and tires, but not to someone cruising around in bald tires, the worse part is they don’t even realize it and think they are “fine.”

Death Valley is a spot in Arlington that is named that for that very reason. It is always in the shade so nothing melts, it is curvy and hilly. We all know to take it easy when going through the area, but out of state drivers don’t slow down, think about black ice, or braking. They usually end up in an accident. The roads weren’t “fine” for them in those conditions since they didn’t know about them, but was”fine” for the locals.

I still hate driving in the snow. I still hate when someone says the roads are fine. That being said Marty was right, I was “fine”. My trip back to VT did get me thinking that it could just be mind over matter. That’s “fine!”