The View
Vision and visibility: can you have both at once, or one without the other? It may seem like a strange musing, but in Canada, in January, in snow squall season, I can assure you it is quite relevant.
Last week I had a vision. I was going to spend an evening surrounded by the Magic of the Impressionists! A feast for the eyes, I thought when I saw the announcement for the event.
My friend and I had bought tickets, and we were excited about an evening of beauty followed by a meal out in a restaurant together.
The various weather channels had been calling for a snow storm all week. We checked the forecasts, and decided that the storm would begin conveniently after our outing. The two previously forecasted storms had turned out to be simply snow in January in Montreal, hardly an occurrence worth alerting the authorities. We kept our commitment to the outing. I met her in Beaconsfield, she left her car in the parking lot, and we drove on dry roads into Montreal.
Our only concession to a possible inconvenience: we parked indoors.
We came out of Cabaret St-Denis to a post-card perfect winter night. Big fat snowflakes swirled in the evening sky, covering everything with a thick blanket of white. Beautiful. We had a simple meal across the street, then returned to the indoor parking spot we congratulated ourselves on securing.
As we headed onto the 20 west, the swirling views of French gardens in my recent memory were replaced by swirls of snow congealing on the windshield. Despite blowing the defogger to keep the windows clear, and activating the windshield wipers at different speeds, the snow and ice clung to my wipers and created a crystallized panel through which I could guess the road ahead.
The wind whipped up the blowing snow as we made slow progress towards home. We were driving into a blizzard. The temperature read -7 celsius. Why was the snow sticking to my wipers? It didn’t made sense. By now, I could barely see ahead of me, especially on the driver’s side. The windshield wipers worked furiously without managing to give me a clear field of vision. Things were better on the passenger side, but that didn’t help my cause. I stood up on my left foot, attempting to see over the smeared snow and ice spreading over the window. I really couldn’t see.
I took the exit off Norman Street in industrial Lachine, and made my way to a parking lot. There, my friend and I cleaned the windshield wipers and tried to clear the windshield well as the snow blew all around us. We made a u-turn, and took the exit back to the highway.
Within minutes, I could not see where I was going. My friend was helping me steer into the right lane, since she could see out her side of the windshield.
My friend has poor night vision, so I usually drive when we go anywhere at night. These conditions would be a real hindrance to her. Should I drive her home to Ile Bizard? Could she drive home under these conditions? Should I take a cab? Should she? It was difficult to see a path forward, in more ways than one.
We arrived at the shopping centre parking lot after this harrowing one hour drive. I started calling a cab, and was put on hold.
“I’ll drive you home," said my friend.
“You can’t drive in this???”
“You’ll never get a cab in this weather. No one wants to drive in this”.
“Ok, so if you drive me home, sleep over. You can leave in the morning.”
“Oh no, I want to be home.”
“I’ll make you breakfast?”
“I know you will,” she laughed. “But I’m going home. I’ll drive really slowly”.
In the end, I drove my friend’s car home. I was still trying to persuade her to stay over, and argued that my vision was better than hers at night. We left my car in the parking lot, hoping it wouldn’t get towed. In any case, the inconvenience of towing would be better that the alternative.
The windshield wipers on her car worked perfectly, giving me the visibility I needed to follow the snowy road home.
Despite my pleas, she drove home from Pincourt to Ile Bizard. The Snow Gods put a snow plough ahead of her, and she followed it all the way home. By 10:30, we were both home safe in our beds.
The next day, the neighbourhood garage simply changed my driver’s side wiper, and I now have perfect visibility, in any weather.
So, in retrospect, what saved us that night? Vision, or visibility?