Comments | dawn_felagund: WTF, Rain?! and Empirical Evidence That My Terror of Driving in Baltimore Is Justified

dawn_felagund

WTF, Rain?! and Empirical Evidence That My Terror of Driving in Baltimore Is Justified

Sep 07, 2011 20:15

For all the fuss that was made over Irene, she left Maryland pretty much unscathed ... at least, it could have been much worse. Here in Manchester, we got a measly 4 inches of rain ( Read more... )

ye olde hometown, weather

Comments 10

fegie September 8 2011, 00:57:43 UTC

Haha, well, re: Woodlawn, the Gwynns Falls flooded & roads were blocked off (idk if it had flooded while you were here), so that definitely didn't help matters.

It's funny though, because i've always felt that Towson drivers are horrible drivers ever since i've been going to school & walking around that area.

dawn_felagund September 8 2011, 01:02:19 UTC

To be fair to Woodlawn, I haven't driven at all in Towson. Bobby went to university there; I'll have to ask his opinion! :)

We left school at 3 PM today on order of our principal, who was worried that we had such a long drive home in such evil weather. The school is on Rutherford Road, and we stopped at the Woodlawn Library, then got on the Beltway. I didn't see any flooding, but my teacher's associate was talking to her husband just before we left, and he said there were tons of roads flooded and trees down all over town.

fegie September 8 2011, 01:07:24 UTC

Ah, okay-- i don't know where that road is (i'm bad with that kind of thing), but if you were by the library, you were a bit of a ways away. The house is on a hill that has the Falls at the bottom across the street, & they had to block off Gwynn Oak because the road was covered with water. So everyone ended up on the same few roads, so it was one hell of a back up.

My father had to go online to check to see what roads were flooded & which weren't in order for us to get back, too, so-- yeah. Flooding. Floooooodinnnggggg.

When did he go? Drivers may change over time; maybe they were more or less mental in the past... I've always just assumed they're spoiled or something. Once when i was in high school, i was crossing the street, the light was letting me go, i had looked both ways, et cetera-- when this sports car zooms in front of me just inches away. Special snowflake, no doubt.

dawn_felagund September 8 2011, 01:14:25 UTC

He was class of '03 ... of course, he was a young and probably somewhat reckless driver himself (versus a crusty old 30-year-old with a neurotic wife! ;) so perhaps he never noticed. The sportscar story is ... disquieting. o.O

Rutherford is off of Lord Baltimore and about five minutes from the library. My own knowledge of the area is fuzzy (since I only drive to Woodlawn to go to work and SCA), but it does seem we were completely opposite sides of town. It sounds annoying and dangerous. Hopefully the skies will hold back enough that we won't have a repeat performance tomorrow.

heartofoshun September 8 2011, 01:47:43 UTC

OMG! We're still cleaning up here from our non-hurricane. Took Alex to the Park today in the rain and we passed three HUGE nicely sawed up and stacked piles of firewood out on the curb for the garbage men to pick up. Kills me. It is useless here. No body has functioning fireplaces.

dawn_felagund September 8 2011, 01:51:31 UTC

*whiiiiiine!* We could use that firewood! I don't think it's worth six hours of driving though!

The Baltimore area seems pretty tidied up after Irene. I say that with the limited perspective of driving to and from work in Woodlawn every day!

heartofoshun September 8 2011, 01:57:52 UTC

It broke my heart to see all that wood just on our little street alone. It will be picked up in the morning too. I've lived enough places where I would have paid good money for it.

dawn_felagund September 8 2011, 15:12:19 UTC

I hate seeing trees goes to waste. I'd probably cry. I'm such a sap. I get a tear in my eye whenever I see the trees stacked outside the pulp mill outside of Hanover!

heartofoshun September 8 2011, 01:54:10 UTC

It seems that Allstate Insurance has released a list of the most accident-prone cities in the U.S. and guess what? DC tops the list with Baltimore in the #2 slot. Yay us.

Now that is a dubious honor. My ex-mother-in-law lives in New Mexico. I always thought they were the worst. They drive like they do not expect to ever meet anyone else on the highway. Thing is they usually don't!

dawn_felagund September 8 2011, 15:10:50 UTC

I'm spoiled spoiled spoiled by where I live! Once upon a time, I could drive in DC or Baltimore traffic without blinking. Up here, we're not quite so desolate that we don't expect to meet anyone on the road, so that quells a lot of recklessness. At the same time, we have one major road in the county with more than one lane, so one gets used to getting caught behind a slow driver ... or a tractor/combine/guy-on-lawnmower. ;) I used to find it impossible to keep the speed limit; now I frequently find myself driving below it. If I had my way, I'd never drive outside of my home county!