OK, let's get this straight. If you are NOT a good driver, then DO NOT go out when it's a growing snowstorm. If the nervous ninnies would just get a ride home, we'd all get home sooner and not miss Dr. Phil. I live in Tennessee. We don't get a lot of snow but this winter has been... uh.. bountiful.. sometimes we got as much as 3.5 inches in my area (wow. one time.)
On the way home today, there was a half-mile long line of cars in the right lane. I managed to get by on the left lane and make my way toward the front to see the cause. The problem: a snow plow truck in the left lane and a car just behind it in the right lane - but not passing it. No one could get past the pair. At the time there was less than a half inch of watery slush on the road. We were going about 10 mph. - maybe 15 at times.
The car holding things up was a Mercury Grand Marquis. (Need I say more?) The driver was apparently afraid of the 2 foot high plume of scraped slush being thrown by the truck, so they just stayed there next to the truck - NOT slowing down and moving over, NOT pulling off the road - and NOT just going on around the truck.
Who told them they could arbitrarily decide the highway speed for all the people behind them? I'm not talking about driving fast, or even the speed limit under such moderately bad conditions. I'm talking about using that little piece of mirror that hangs from your car roof and then being CONSIDERATE of all those around you. The biggest cause of road rage is impatience (mine included!) but it is acerbated by those who just don't use good judgement. Some of the worst driving conditions are between our ears! Ever see someone driving out of your neighborhood with just a tiny hole scraped in the windshield frost? Same thing. The same mode of non-thought is demonstrated by people who take flash pictures at a concert in a football stadium - as if that tiny bulb would illuminate the entire distance from their seat to the stage - but I digress, sorta.
I want a license plate printed in mirror-reverse. I want it on the front of my car so when people actually USE their rear-view mirror (for something other than checking makeup), they will read "DON'T GO FASTER / JUST MOVE OVER!" Maybe I'll have it stenciled on the hood, like ambulances.
I also understand why it is against the law to have loaded weapons in a vehicle.
[voice like talking to a child] See the little fluffy flakes? That means the road will be slippery and make you scared, so think twice about going somewhere until it melts - or get a ride - or just move to the right lane and put on your caution flashers, then check your rear-view mirror to see if you just need to pull off and let all that mile-long line of backed up traffic go by.
Going to take extra BP meds now. Drive considerately - the life you save may be mine.
WELCOME! This is my primary, blog. I have other blogs used for educational purposes. Comments and (more likely) rants may be the basis for a book, a college lecture, or a standup comedy routine, whichever comes first. Help yourself - perhaps you share my confusion at some of life's mysteries. Civil comments will be respectfully read and appreciated. Others will simply disappear.
