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| | From:  _Xer (Original Message) | Sent: 12/17/2008 8:12 PM |
I realize some folks think only people who drive too fast are stupid. Not me. I mean I don't believe that. Some drivers think the slowest they can drive is always the safest. When it's snowing those are the ones you see sliding down hills backwards. I almost didn't make it back home from taking my wife to work today due to one of those. Going up the hill, at 15 mph, the tires started losing traction as we passed a woman sitting in her stopped car having slid backwards onto the side of the road. Her face looked so pitifully helpless as I passed it was heartbreaking, but had I stopped to help her I'd still be stuck beside her. On the two-lane highway 99 there were two idiots driving about 20 mph side by side. I could barely see them past the 40 plus cars they had stacked up behind them. And, the highway was heavily sanded! I was very happy when the road opened out to three lanes! Then there are the clowns who, terrified by snow, when they feel themselves losing traction jam on their brakes! Those are the ones you see sliding down hills sideways. Doh!
Unlike some folks I don't mind people who are in a hurry half as much as the ones who want to drive slow in front of me. What I actually like about people who want to drive faster than me is they pass me and go, and I never have to deal with them again, almost always anyway. Driving beside Loch Lomand the road was so twisty there were hardly any lengths of straight road longer then about 60 feet, and as it was it was hardly wide enough for the rental car I was driving (sure glad we never met any oncoming traffic). A local ended up behind me wanting to go 70 plus kmph so I speeded up as fast as my driving skills would allow at about 60 kmph (and believe me, I'm a skilled driver). While I felt his pain, being stuck behind a slowpoke foreigner unfamiliar with the roads, I was honestly going faster than was safe already. It seemed to take forever for there to be a place I could pull over to let him pass. It made him and me both very happy when he could get around my rental car. The road there is only feet from the edge of the Loch, with no barriers, so it was scaring the haggis out of both me and the wife.
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 12/19/2008 8:41 AM |
sorry
Clowns, I hate 'em
I'm leaving the chiropractor's for the massage therapist. Going down a small grade. At the bottom is a 90 degree right turn onto the freeway onramp. Several decades of experience have taught me to listen to my vehicle and drive accordingly rather than just look at the speed gauge and base my responses according to that only. Yes, that propensity has earned me more than one speeding ticket on clear roads, but it has also kept my vehicle on the road when others around me are losing control of theirs. Today, the car, the tires, and my experience are pegging the speed at 20 mph, with a suggested slow to 10- for negotiating the 90 degree turn. There was not a lot of sand on this particular road. And no lane for passing.
Unfortunately, Bozo the Clown behind me has a 4-wheel drive SUV with either chains or studded tires. He wants to go at least 30. I stupidly allow myself to go 25, and idiot boy stays on top on my rear bumper. Where's a gun when you need one? I move my left wheels into the unpacked snow at road center to slow down some without sliding, and at the last minute, to avoid getting rear-ended, I turn the wheels right. Yep, couldn't slow enough in time with a rear bumper clown ornament. My car slides left out of traction, skidding in slo-mo for the side of the road and one of those metal posts with a reflector on top. I'm busy gauging momentum, lack of friction for the tires, and depth of snow between me and the metal post.
Turns out I was right. There was enough snow to protect my fender. Meanwhile Bozo has clamped on his brakes, not only blocking the onramp from other cars, but blocking the street as well. He is sitting there with his flashers on, as though to protect me so he can come to my rescue. Swearing aloud, I won't give him the satisfaction of playing hero after causing the situation. Backing up about three feet I turn the tires to the right and spin 'em until the car slides back into the snow ruts and I can gain the onramp to the freeway. In my rearview I can see it takes him a minute to get back in his SUV and start up the ramp.
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 12/19/2008 8:48 AM |
Here's another snow tale:
Getting off the freeway, I'm still headed for the massage therapist. Making a turn at a light I pull up behind a city cop at the tail end of a long line of traffic. He's got chains on. Makes sense a cop would want to have traction. Of course the chains are biting at regular intervals into the water covered ice sheet on the road. It warmed up for a couple of hours so rather than sticking the new 'snow' became a thin layer of water over ice and existing packed snow. Now, I hate how chains cause those regular intervaled devits in road ice. Makes for a darn bumpy ride. But, the ones the cop is making haven't had time to get deep yet, so I'm actually enjoying mild traction following in his tracks.
After a while I need to make a left turn to get where I'm going. Officer Friendly makes my turn also. Swinging onto the one-way street, I take the far right lane while he takes the left. It's necessary for me to slow as a Post Office delivery truck is in my lane. Ah, but he doesn't want to make the right at the next light, and this is a right turn only lane. Turn signal on, PO truck begins moving left into the center lane. Almost as quickly Officer Friendly begins to move right into the center lane and his front bumper is about four feet behind the PO truck's bumper.
Obviously, our friendly officer did not look before leaping. Without thinking I tap my horn three times quickly. Great, Officer Friendly figures it out and gives way. Then he pulls over safely behind the PO truck and we stop for the next light where I make my right turn. Pity I didn't get a badge number. It might have come in handy some day if he ever pulls me over for speeding on my bike? He sure owes me one.
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