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Raise your hand if your recent mornings resemble the following:

You wake up, stretching and smiling in calm refreshment; gosh you love your bed. (Okay, maybe not so much, since you can't afford a sleep number bed, heck you can't even afford a sleep digit.)

You look outside and the light dusting of snow that you wished a fond goodnight to the previous evening is now several layers of thick quilts, basically making the streets look like massive snakes made of cotton batting. What is more, when you head to your car, either your front door is snowed shut to the point that you consider calling a SWAT team to batter it down, or you need to borrow your neighbor's blowtorch just so you can open your car door to get your ice scraper.

Once you've finally got just enough of your windshield clear so that, sure, you can see oncoming traffic, you hit the road.

Then the road hits back.

Driving in inclement winter weather is a major ingredient of catastrophe. The problem is that the other ingredient is the unexpected, so nobody can really tell you what to do to avoid such things. Instead, what we can do is provide tips for surviving the unexpected, often unpleasant, events that come about while driving in winter. These tips fall into two categories: Preparation and During Crisis.

PREPARATION

Preparation includes preparing yourself mentally and physically. Here are some physical things you can prepare so that you can survive the unexpected.

*Keep your car working well. Make sure your tires are strong and will function well during winter's inclement weather. Keep your fluids topped off and it's always a good idea to fill your washer fluid with the stuff that is specially made for cleaning ice off the windshield. Make sure your tires are filled to an appropriate psi as well. Also, never let your gas tank get below a half tank, at least as much as you can.

Also, and this is so important that it gets its own paragraph, have your radiator serviced and be sure the antifreeze level and pH is correct.

*Load up your car with important items for survival and getting unstuck. So put a couple of good sandbags in the back of your car. This will add weight to your car, improving traction, and the sand will also be useful if you need to make some traction in ice or snow. You should also keep a bag of ice melt in there as well, for much the same reasons.

Also, it's a good idea to keep a collapsible camping shovel in your car. This can help you dig out of snow drifts, or, in a pinch, dig a snow cave when

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