38) Snow tires

This year, for the first time in my life, I bought snow tires.

I've never had them on a car I've owned before because: 1) the Toronto area doesn't get too much snow, 2) there's never anywhere I've really NEEDED to go during a snow event, 3) I'm a cautious defensive driver, and I've found all season tires were good enough going back and forth to work, especially sticking to the 401, or major roads, and 4) if there is a really bad storm, I'll take the day off instead of sitting in crawling traffic for 5+ hours.

This year, however, was different. E has cancer. There are places we may need to go, and if the weather isn't co-operating, too bad, we still have to go. If there's a chemotherapy appointment, and it's snowing, we still need to be there. If E happens to get a fever, we have to take him to the hospital regardless of whether the roads are dry or snow covered.

SickKids is about a 45 km drive, and while our satellite hospital is closer, it's still about a 20 km drive. With E's leukemia, I wanted extra assurance that my family could get to where we needed to go, and could get there safely.

We've already made a number of trips back and forth in some sketchy weather conditions, and the tires have performed amazingly well. In my mind, they've already paid for themselves.