錬金のトラック

In the midst of winter nights, I often hear those trucks outside removing snow/ice, emitting warning beeps and scrapping sounds. I had never seen what they actually look like, until tonight.

The series of warning beeps first caught my attention, as it didn't stop for a while after the scrapping sound abruptly ended. I peeked out the window and saw one truck getting stuck by the side of the road. The tires were unmistakably crying from the slippery ice.

It finally managed to break free and continued working. During the time when it was stuck, occasionally, wisps of white dust would come out from a vent at the front of the car. I thought it was a salt truck, and that the salt grains had provided enough traction for the tires.

As I observed the truck more, I started to doubt my initial theory. There was no container to hold salt, and the way it spew out the white stuff, the flow of the white stuff in the air, and the destined location, suggested it couldn't be salt. Then... snow?

It's a truck that consumes snow and ice chunks from the road and turns them into powdery snow, which it then spreads to the side! It's an alchemy truck! なんて素晴らしい発明！ XD

Now that I think of it, this also solved the mystery of the knee-deep snow I had to tread through on the way to see a certain feline meat sometime ago...