Snow what's new?

You know winter is coming to Southwestern Ontario when arena parking lots are filled with people who've made their cars ugly by switching to snow tires and ditching their wheelcovers.
Remember when radial tires were touted as year-round rollers making snows obsolete? Remember when front-wheel drive cars were supposed to make snows obsolete?
Part of the reason in this area is that there are not enough people like Ed, the meticulous City of London snowplow operator and uber-hockey dad. Snowplowing, sanding and salting does not seem to be as prompt and meticulous as it once was, although Ed and his friends try.
Part of the reason hockey families invest in snow tires and all-wheel drive vehicles, beyond the obvious dedication to hockey, is that fact everyone has close call or nailbiting driving stories to tell.
We took the hint one tournament weekend when we got stuck in our driveway. A slow drive home from Barrie saw us creep through two distinct storms, from freezing rain to blinding snow where it was tough to tell where the edge of the 401 was. Freezing rain leaving Ann Arbor, Mich., left us in peril not in our quest to get home but in arriving safety at an outlet mall.
There's a section of the 401 near Woodstock that's notorious for sudden whiteouts and heavy streamers blow across from Lake Huron. A chartered bus from Newmarket coming to London for a tournament was in caught in a whiteout and crashed a few years ago, sending several team members to hospital instead of the rink. Friends of my nephews from Newmarket were on the bus and it was only good luck that someone wasn't killed or permanently injured.
We all love hockey, but the rules of the road are just like the rule of the rink. Try your best, cope with adversity, meet the challenge ... but ultimately, it's safety first. Be a skilled winter driver, but be brave enough to cancel games or stay at home when weather is bad.
For my part, I bought an all-wheel drive Ford Escape mostly to make sure we'd always make it to hockey games. Before that, I had a sedan with four winter ice radials.