So I woke up this morning, staggered down the stairs in a sleepy haze and poured myself a cup of coffee.
I took a look out the front door to check the weather and lo and behold, all I could think of was “let the games begin”.
What the hell am I talking about?
They come from everywhere to participate in this yearly event and the players are young and old, they drive all manner of vehicles and they have one thing in common.
THEY CAN’T DRIVE ON SNOW!
Nope. They don’t have clue one and they’ll be driving like it was yesterday, their driving wasn’t good then and it will only get worse today.
How many accidents will there be? I’ll be guessing at least a hundred.
Let me say now that having four wheel drive doesn’t negate the fact that you have to slow down!
Somebody say a prayer for this agnostic, I’m going to need all the help I can get when I venture out there a little later.
I am looking forward to the look on the girl’s faces when they go out today, their still at that age where snow is wonderful and mysterious.
I’m at that age where it just means getting up that much earlier to clear the snow off and warm up the car so I can play “Dodge 'em” on the roadways.
Shovelling the walks is always a great heap of fun too.
Have fun, I know my kids can scarcely wait for winter to get here, preferrably right after Halloween. I recall reading something from you last night about somebody “unplugging” your car, and thinking, “damn, it must get pretty cold wherever Feynn lives!” I would expect people in Alberta to know how to drive in the snow.
I think we are going to get 72 F and sun today, which seems tropical in comparison.
Tell me about it. Here in the Twin Cities, the parking lots are full of SUV’s. At least here they get to use their 4wd to start moving; unfortunately, most of them don’t realize that, due to the extra weight, 4wd counts AGAINST them when it’s time to stop in the snow, or turn…
Oh, well. I’ll just creep carefully along in my Volvo and play the Minnesota driving game of Count the Newbies! They’re the ones off the side of the road in the ditch when there’s one inch of snow on the ground.
“What? Snow? Is that slippery, or… hey, neat! The steering wheel turns real easy all of a sudden!”
Get to 72? :: smirks :: We were at 71 F by 8am. Our scheduled high for today is 88 F.
Posting this even with the risk of a scathing “bite me” response from Feynn
Living in a cold climate I can really relate to this.
It’s easy to think, geez these people live where it snows surely they know how to drive in it?
NOT.
My theory is this; your less confident learning drivers, learn, practise and take the test in the spring or summer, after all it’s easier then surely. Then they get just enough driving experience before the snow flies to convince them they know it all.
Add to that the old and the addled who have to start in at the bottom of the learning curve again each year when the white stuff arrives. Well, you can see the problem.
There are people who insist their kids learn to drive in the winter, they’re usually the ones avoiding the roads as much as possible during the first storm of the season, we called them clever where I live.
I learned to drive in Florida, then moved to Cincinnati about 10 years later. I was apprehensive about driving in snow since I didn’t know how the car would respond. So the first time there was snow on the ground I had a friend take me to a mall parking lot well after closing time, and I practised driving there for about half an hour. Did all kinds of fun things like seeing when my car would go into a slide in a turn, slammed on the brakes, went from a stop to a start, etc. Now I am not a professional snow driver but I would rate myself in the upper quartile. And I have seen some people in various places do things which just leaves me scratching my head in amazement.
FWIW, most Northerners don’t know how to drive in Florida downpours either, since they are not used to it. They also end up in the ditches, if they are lucky.
Feynn: Cincy weather is about the most schizophrenic bunch of crap anyone would ever have to put up with. It is not at all unusual to get 30-50 F swings in temperature in 24 hour periods, much less what you can get in a week. In my brief experience here it seems to snow on average of once a month from Novemeber - April, but usually only sticks from December - early March. I do recall a few years back where it snowed six inches over night in October, which broke many tree limbs, since the leaves hadn’t fallen yet. The next day it was 65 F. Crazy, nothing to get jealous about. I hope you live near some mountains and get to ski.
