I have some yaktrax for walking in the conditions we have right now, in Oklahoma. Usually we have more ice than snow, but we have both now, since Christmas.

http://www.yaktrax.com/ProductsPro.aspx ($30 on this site) shows the product well!

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___24093?CS_003=2477120&CS_010=24093 ($24 on this site)

so far, I have never slipped on snow and ice, but be VERY careful walking in to a store. I have to pull mine off, cause walking on smooth store surfaces is slick.

Moni

Hello, friend and fellow Minnesotan, Cynic. You are so right about the icy roads, sidewalks and parking lots. Another difficulty, is the pile of snow the plows leave on the edge of sidewalks. Here, you can park in front of a business, but have to walk to the corner to get on the sidewalk. I have some walking issues, so I plan my errands carefully. Stay warm and safe, Kiddo. Dottie

I went @$$ over teakettle the other night. Fell down my front steps. I thought I really did it that time - but just a nice bruise on my posterior!

I am usually very careful, but I had to run something out to the garage, and slipped on some regular shoes and BAM!

I have boots that have much better traction and now I only put those on and slow it down when I launch out of the house.

DO be careful out there - it happens so FAST!

We had ice before Christmas - then snow. The spots where I left the snow are much better than the spots I removed the snow. Better traction on that snow for sure!

and do you remember studded snow tires? Those babies would get you through anything--best thing for ice, IMO. Shame they're no longer legal, due to the damage they did to roads.

You know what's been getting me this year? I live in the NE, and yes, it's cold--colder than it's been in a few years (we've been blessed with some mild winters for the past few years). But it's ONLY in the mid-20's to low 30's. To hear the news/weather reports you'd think we were experiencing below zero temps. This is NORMAL for this time of year. I do recall winters when we had extended periods of teens and single digits, but twenties? Give me a break, that's just winter. Normal.

Actually, here in Maine, they ARE legal. My truck's 4wd, so I don't really need them, but my son's truck has em, and so does my wife's car. They just need to be taken off by May 1st.

I too have yak traxxs and try to be careful when I am out. I got my front walk swept off this morning after my husband went to work, now I must get ready to get our weekly grocery shopping done, more snow coming! Keep safe.

Sue

Hi everyone oh I agree its so darn cold and I wanted to share what I recently got to put on my shoes and I have to tell you they give you peace of mind walking around icy areas
Here are a few sites for you to look at: I highly recommend them I got mine at lowes
http://www.duenorthproducts.com/products_details.php?cat=89&prod=7

Another dangerous thing. I heard on the news this morning, a woman's windshield was smashed when a piece of ice flew off a semi. She was able to pull over and call for help. How scary. Dottie

Always wear a coat and carry your cell phone in your pocket when you go outside in the winter.

I fell a couple of years ago when I was running out to the mailbox. There was a patch of ice under a skiff of snow, so it wasn't obvious. Luckily I did have my coat on. I laid on the driveway for a long time before I could get enough oomph up to crawl to the trash can. I used it as a support to get into the house. Everyone in my neighborhood was at work or in school so even though I laid on the driveway for about 10 minutes with my dog rocketing in to check on me and then rocketing off, no one was there to help.

I used to joke that I fell at least once every winter. But when I hurt my knee a couple of years ago and was laid up for two weeks, it wasn't so funny anymore. Fortunately, my son and DIL were living with me at the time, and were able to take care of the animals.

I keep cleats on a pair of winter boots all the time. The boots sit inside my front door, ready to be slipped on. The cleats, which look somewhat similar to Jacquelyn's, cost me $5.99 at a hunting store. I've never tried YakTrax, but was told they can skid on dry, hard ice.

I once had a doctor who thought he could drive at any speed in his 4x4 Jeep. Unable to stop on the highway, he slid under a tractor trailer and ended up with a long rod in his leg. He was lucky it wasn't worse.

I took one hell of a fall on Sunday, and not on ice.

I was walking down a short slope in my community. The ground was frozen, but the sun had been out and the very top layer of soil had melted. It was like being on oiled glass.

I went down HARD. Sprung my knee, wrist, elbow, and shoulder and pulled a bunch of muscles. I'm still not moving right.

And the other danger I forgot to mention that I had intended.... hypothermia. A good friend of mine was crazy enough to go out cross-country skiing a week or two ago, in northern MN. (She SHOULD know better! But she's more of a health nut than I am! LOL) Well, she took a tumble and hurt her leg. Had to crawl back doing basically a sealwalk to get back to her house. She doesn't have a cell phone (ARGH!!) and fortunately was able to get back, get in and start warming up, but she did have a light case of frostbite and a pretty good case of hypothermia. She doesn't have the "natural" insulation I have!

I avoid following semis after a storm. They seldom if ever clean them off and the ice and snow is dangerous. Large trucks and SUVs are just as bad. For that matter too many small cars have lazy drivers too.

I went to a little restaurant this morning for breakfast and it was just getting light out. The parking lot was glare ice. I started out and it wasn't a long walk but after getting about 10 feet from my vehicle I said THIS IS CRAZY!!!, turned around and penguin-walked back in my rig, sighed in relief and drove down the road. And I was surprised. The had sanded their parking lot! So they got my business this morning.

Boy do I watch my rear view mirror now.... I see so many people sliding at me. After getting hit in the driver door by a (expletive deleted) years and years ago by someone going WAY too fast in an ice storm my eyes go constantly. Had I not been paying attention I could easily have been killed or seriously injured by her negligence. I was able to throw myself on the seat and grab hold. And then she says... I didn't know it was icy!!!

I pick up my mail from the vehicle. Not walking on the icy driveway and street and risk it. Sometimes my street can get busy. The bills can wait a day or two!

Stay safe everyone. Don't take stupid chances. Slow down and enjoy the drive. Let someone else be hospitalized or put in the morgue.

Dottie, I think of you and Phyllis often in this weather. I know you're careful but I just hope you avoid going out if you don't have to.

Although I should say that while this seems harsh, this seems like a more traditional winter than we've had in decades. I don't remember many years that we had the pile-up of snow like we do now and the stretches of frigid weather. I remember many times somewhere between Christmas and a week or so after New Year that it would be a week of this stuff. We've been lucky the last 20 years or so. Haven't had to do much plowing or shoveling. When I first moved into my house 30+ years ago, I remember shoveling a foot or more of snow. Then the super cold weather would hit for a week or 10 days. And that would happen a couple times a year. Hey, should I tell you about when I was a kid walking to school 1.5 miles through 3' of snow, uphill both ways with no shoes???? I remember getting frostbite going to grade school and I was bundled up. On my neck, under my chin, by the time I got to school it was literally frozen solid. No kidding. We didn't qualify to ride a bus and seldom if ever did we get a ride. Our family had one car and dad was going to work before we left for school. Yep, them was the days!!

It's a whopping ZERO(F) now! Whooooo-hooooooooo! Short sleeve weather.... almost. Snow coming tomorrow. Time to make some chili I think!

I agree, it is the ice especially in the large parking lots where the cars, trucks melt it a bit and it freezes right up. Most of the people here are either in snow boots or tennis shoes. I too have slipped on ice and it is not fun. I don't bounce too good. Here iti is the SUV's and PU trucks as most of the farmers and base people have either. Many are 4x4's and they forget they don't stop much better that without. Too fast, then crunch!

This is the coldest winter I remember. I bought snow boots for me and the kids. Now I'm wondering if our hats and gloves are warm enough.

We got hit in the windshield with the ice off of someone's car back during the ice storms of December 2000. Some stupid woman had just gotten on the interstate and was speeding up and we saw the first side go. Dh realized what was about to happen so he let off the gas and we got hit smack dab in the middle of the windshield. We were lucky that the windshield stayed put after it shattered. It could have killed us. Dh and I were in the front seats. My then 7 mo ds #1 was in the rear middle facing the back in his car seat. The stupid woman who was the cause of this didn't acknowledge it. Some guys followed her to get her tag, but the insurance company said it was a road hazard and didn't go after her.

I'm due to get a new vehicle as the one I have needs to be replaced. I think I'm keeping it at least until this winter is over. It drives well on ice. If I hit something, I don't have an expensive loss.

Yes, Be very careful of the ice. I'm sitting here with a broken right wrist from slipping & falling on the ice. I tried to catch myself...didn't work. LOL Now I have 4 more weeks in a brace, no using my hand & trying to type one handed. It would of been better to fall on my butt, more cushion ;~)

I have fallen on ice. Right after Dh said "don't walk on the deck". Face first- did not use my hands to break the fall as I was holding a brand new coffee cup my son gave me for Christmas. So, I landed on my chin. Such an idiot.

I went into town this morning and we still have piles of icy snow along the side of the road. It snowed over two weeks ago! I live in SOUTH Carolina folks, we are not used to this stuff. We don't go out in our Ford F150 in icy conditions, just the Jeep. And then only for DH to get to work about a mile away.

Please stay safe everyone.

Trish

snap58_in_wi I am sitting here with a broken left wrist. I fell going into work on Nov. 30th had slushie snow on my shoes and the minute I stepped in the door my feet went out from under me. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to put out a hand it was just the way I landed. I had my lunch bag in my right hand so it was protected. I should get my cast off on Jan. 18th. I was only off work for a week. I am getting tired of this cast though.
Kittywhiskers

Best thing you can do when you do slip and go down, is NOT put your hand out. Round yourself out. Hand against your body, elbow too! Hunch down, and make yourself as much rounded out, ball shape as fast as you can. Less chances of breaking bones!!!

Moni

kitty, I'm sorry to here about your wrist! It sure is a shock to the body when it happens. I'm glad you got to keep working, helps keep the mind off it. I was just finishing a contract job, I do IT work, so my last 2 weeks was spent telling the others how to do the job. I got my cast off last week by promising NOT to use my right hand. Of course, I kept finding myself trying to use my fingers, so I taped them together......LOL. I really need to keep the use of my working hand & not goof it up.
Best of Luck to you,
Ginger

Cynic, the reason they don't sand the roads anymore is that the sand plugged up the drainage ditches. Dad worked for the county for years. Many Christmas's he would be out plowing all day and most of the night, come home with the snow plow for a couple hours of sleep, and go back out agian. Those were the days when you would get snow from the first of Nov (sometimes before Halloween!)and not have it melt until Easter. The roads wouldn't be bare, they would be covered in packed snow! My kids don't have any idea what winter is really like!

DS wanted ice cream tonight, and I have been craving chocolate so bad that any chocolate I ate didn't cure it. When it gets that bad, the only thing to cure it is hot fudge! DS decided after dinner that if I wanted to go get some, he would drive AND BUY!!! We stopped to buy eggs. He gave me his arm both going in and coming out of the store so I wouldn't slip.

Moni, I know from experience, when you slip on ice, you don't have time to curl into a ball! You just fly thru the air. I got told not to try to catch myself when I did it, too. I didn't try. That's just the windmill effect of flying thru the air. That was my right wrist about 12 years ago. So, snap58 and kittywhiskers, I feel for you!

Tami

Bought two scarves when in Scotland. One cashmere, and one wool. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

To all the folks who've talked about the YakTrax, thank you. I saw a mention here in a post a few pages back, looked them up and just tonite ordered some. Somehow, as I near closer to the big 50 mark (a couple of years to go), I get more and more nervous about snow and ice. So hopefully these will give me a bit more confidence.

I'm also being more vocal about saying to my boss: I do not want to drive in this bad weather, so I will work from home. You can either trust me to do my work from home, or you can take a vacation day from me, or you can dock my pay. At this age, I need to protect myself.

I really don't appreciate those people who don't brush the snow off their vehicles (and chip off the ice). Yes, it takes time. Yes, it's cold out there while you're working on all the snow and ice. I'm just hoping karma ("carma"?) rears its head for those people and eventually they are the ones facing a block of ice flying toward them. (But then again, those are also the drivers that make you say "I hope a cop is in the next block to pull his *** over," and there's no cop to be found.)

For people who drive vans and SUVs, there are tools to get the tops clean; you spend more money for your big vehicles, so do the rest of us a favor and spend some money for the tools you need.

Adella: I can't imagine how scary that was for you and DH.

Last night, while attending a meeting of the investment group, I took a good slide, due to freezing drizzle. As we came out of the building, I went to step back up on the sidewalk and my feet went substantially out from under me ...

... but I had a bag of books in my hand, and they swung, so that I was able to catch myself before I hit the ground totally.

No bad effect, and a couple of the participants asked if I was O.K. Not even a strained muscle.

I often travel part way with a friend, but we didn't meet at his house last night: got together at a store, on the way.

There was ice to clear from his car after the meeting and when I got back to my car, ice to clear from it ... and I had inadequate equipment to do the job.

I've had some extra coats in the car for a while, and yesterday, aware that I wasn't properly equipped, put my sleeping bag in there. Slipped off of the lane going out, was shovelling, and a guy from the road came in to help, tried to push me, then pulled me out with his truck. Carried a shovel with me all day ... had left the other in the snowbank where I'd been shovelling: it's in the car, now. Need a scooper for shovelling snow, a shallow one for pulling snow out from under the car.

This morning it's to be the ice scraper that gets into the car with me.

I'm to pick up my custom-made squeezee socks for varicose veins, then attend the ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out) Coffee Hour (I call it the "Old Farts' Club"). Then deliver native ciggies to my friend and pick up my new cell phone that he's been configuring for me ... that, being an old guy, living alone, I've been ordered to carry with me at all times. (so ... I guess that I'd better get an old bag to carry it in).

Good wishes for getting through the bad weather with minimal deleterious result ... and have a really fine New Year, everyone!

ole joyful

Pammyfay, did you get the pro, or the plain ones? Difference is a strap across the top of the shoe. Helps from loosing one. I guess, you know, how I know?

Above all, make sure and pull it on the shoe right. The rubber stretchy part should be all around the shoe, not any of it under the sole.

Moni

Joyful, glad to hear you're getting a cell phone. Like I say, with prepaid ones so cheap now everyone should have one for emergencies.... like sliding off the road with inadequate clothing!!

But don't use a bag or something separate to carry it. You'll lose it, forget it and not have it available when/if you need it. Get a case or holster that clips onto your belt so it's at your side at all times. (You don't necessarily need a dedicated cell phone case - there's lots of other belt clip pouches that'd work, for knives, tape measure or other gadgets.) Should you fall, either hand can reach it. A bag could go flying. Also spend the few bucks or ask for it as a gift, but get a charger for it that works from the lighter in your car. Even if the cell is dead, you can plug it in and use it in the car for an emergency. Leave the charger in your car. Tape it to the dashboard if you lose things often. As I'm driving around I plug mine in and charge it or add a little charge to top it off if needed. I want that baby available if I need it. Ebay has lots of deals where you can get a case, AC charger, 12v charger and a headset for about $10 or less so that's another option. An extra charger is handy to have around.

One other hint: Monitor it for a while and see where it has coverage and where there's "dead spots". It's nice to know ahead of time if you will be going to an area you can't use it.

Now keep your britches BETWEEN the ditches my friend! You get better gas mileage there than idling or spinning your wheels in a ditch!

I have a few cell phone holders I like really well. I got them at Walmart some years back. They came in different colors. They have a snap on strap that I wear around my neck and under my arm like a purse. It has a snap on the opening so the phone won't fall out. I don't know if Walmart still has them or not, they were in the purse section at the time and were around $5.00. I very seldom am with out my cell phone and I charge it every night, it doesn't take long. I keep it right by my bed at night. I hope you find a suitable holder for yours. Some of them will muffle the ring.

Sue

I have some cell phone cases gathering dust here! I would happily mail one off to you OJ should you decide to use one. No sense in spending money if you don't have to. Plus I can get it out of my house! I use a pre paid cell phone too. I love it, costs me hardly anything and I feel safe. Well worth it.

Trish

We had a blizzard and 12 inches of snow several weekends ago. I ventured out (in my warmest coat,boots,hat,to get a couple of newspspers, and fell twice. Landed on both my wrists, it took me a couple of days to work out the kinks. And I hate driving in snow. I'd hate to have an accident in the slop. My daughter had a bad accident last February. both she and an oncoming driver lost control and went over the line. They hit head-on. No physical injuries, but both cars were pretty well damaged. Thank goodness for auto insurance, we both paid our deductibles and that was that.