winter driving

There's kind of a myth out there that people from the North instinctively know how to drive well in snow, and people from the South don't. Well, the part about Southerners may be true; but after being around Mad City for a few winters, I can tell you that Part A is a myth. We don't all have it. Now, I don't like to boast about my own winter driving abilities, for fear that I'll bring some sort of fender-bender upon myself. But let's just say I can handle my own. (I know, I know - that's what she said ...) But the same can't necessarily be said for some fellow inhabitants of the MJC.

Here's another myth: driving slow is an important winter driving skill. By definition, a skill is something that not everyone can do. And everyone can drive slow. So that's not a skill. No, here's the real skill: recognizing, during the winter, the times when you you *should* drive slow, as opposed to the times when you *don't really need to* drive slow. I can do the former, but I'm even better at the latter. Unfortunately, even when you're able to recognize road and weather conditions that would permit rapid travel, you're almost inevitably hamstrung by the knee-jerk types. Oh no! There's a snowflake! Better ease way up on the gas!

My point is, it shouldn't have taken me 15 minutes to get home tonight. It should have been more like the usual 10-12 minutes. Damn ...