The picture outside my office window (with a little polar bear watching on)If I were 5 and didn't have to drive anywhere I'd be a lot more excited.
Actually this is about the saddest first snow of the season. We got at best a half inch with random patches of black ice hidden on the roads. So it's the perfect weather to cause accidents and at the same time the least fun snow ever (you couldn't even make an inch tall snowman, though you'd look really funny if you tried).
And of course the first snow of the year brings a whole new batch of its own crazies.
First there's the "Terrified Oh my God I just know that we're gonna get in an accident" driver: They are characterised as only going 25 mph whether they are on back roads or interstate. Usually an older sedan that weighs more than most large trucks. You have to be extremely careful around them as they are always going to run red lights under the assumption that they just can't stop. Cause the most accidents of anyone on the road but never get hit themselves so they always assume they're right.
The "Barrel through everything because I have a truck/SUV/Snowmobile" driver: You'd think this would be the scariest driver of all, as they view snowy weather as less of a caution and more as a great chance to speed cause there's no way cops are out checking anyone. But really just sit back, let them fly past you, and wait for their inevitable spin off into a ditch.
The "It's really fucking cold so I am completely blind under my hood, hat and scarf" pedestrian: You have to be super duper careful of any pedestrians when the temperature drops below say 40 as they have suddenly forgotten everything their parents had painstakingly taught them about crossing roads and now assume that every single car will and can stop for them because it's too cold. This goes doubly true for college students (I think all that late night studying makes them think they're all huge robots bent on world destruction).
Hopefully after a week of all these crazies everyone will get back their snow legs and traffic can return to normal (or we'll have an even worse storm).
Is anyone else out there experiencing the joys of winter wonderland? What are you doing to avoid it all?
4 comments:
We have those too in my city. We get chinooks (periodic warm winds coming over the Rocky Mountains, causing everything to melt) and then it snows and/or gets bloody cold and everyone has forgotten how to drive.
I have to admit that I have been one of those college students. But generally just around the university, though.
This is what snow in Tennessee looks like all winter. It's pathetic. :'(
And since it snows so little here, we get all the craziness you posted about... ALL winter long. I swear people have snow amnesia around here.
Admittedly, when the first snow that stays on the ground hits, I am the 25mph driver. I have so little experience driving in snow that it's laughable. :D
I wish it would snow here! We don't get it very often.
Black ice!? Oh no! That stuff is scaary. I love your descriptions of the snow crazies! And I believe there is a universal unwritten rule that says college kids don't stop for traffic, even at the risk of being hit.
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