grumpy snow is GRUMPY
So I pretty much never drive in snow, because I don't commute by car, and who needs it? If it's gonna snow, I'll take the T or walk or stay home. So I drove out to Metrowest, and on my way out the door it was spitting rain, the kind that's a hassle but isn't enough of a hassle to go back upstairs for an umbrella for, not if you're driving from place to place. Right?
The rain turned to snow while I was in Metrowest (arrived 10 AM, still raining; turned to snow maybe 11 AM but I assumed it would just melt as it hit the ground; I realized it was not melting at 12:30, and that was when I skedaddled), and it was no longer the light, minor-hassle stuff. Flakes bigger than a baby's hand were falling thickly, the heavy stuff that's just a few degrees short of rain, and sticking to everything. I had to clear my car to drive it, and I got on the road and realized that... nobody had cleared the roads yet. There were at least 3 inches of slush down on the main streets -- in an hour and a half! --, and the side streets were white. Aside from the crappy visibility, I saw a car fishtail ahead of me and then a block later did the same when I tapped my brakes.
NOT having any interest in a white-knuckle gladiator skid to the highway, I pulled into a grocery store and paced its confines disconsolately. I had meant to go to the grocery store! But at the end of a bunch of other errands, not as an hour-long interlude while waiting for the deluge to thin. I stared out the window by the hot bar, coincidentally next to the store manager, and asked him when it would stop; he guessed 2 PM, which wasn't so far off. So I ate crappy grocery store hot bar food and read Glamour magazine and watched with amazement as other drivers did not seem worried at the pavement being light gray (if you're lucky). They're in Metrowest, though; they drive in snow a lot more often than I do, and anyway half of them drive SUVs. A little after 2, behold, the hand-sized flakes had shrunk to tiny pinpoint size, and I trundled back to the car (and had to clear it again, at least another 1.5" of the heavy stuff). Never was I gladder of highway traffic, as except for the errant douchebag driver we all did 30 MPH, if that. And I made it home without squeezing the steering wheel to death.
Going out to dinner in a few minutes, and I am taking the T I tell you what. Even though the snow is over and done with.
I have moved mostly over to Dreamwidth. Please comment there if you can.
The rain turned to snow while I was in Metrowest (arrived 10 AM, still raining; turned to snow maybe 11 AM but I assumed it would just melt as it hit the ground; I realized it was not melting at 12:30, and that was when I skedaddled), and it was no longer the light, minor-hassle stuff. Flakes bigger than a baby's hand were falling thickly, the heavy stuff that's just a few degrees short of rain, and sticking to everything. I had to clear my car to drive it, and I got on the road and realized that... nobody had cleared the roads yet. There were at least 3 inches of slush down on the main streets -- in an hour and a half! --, and the side streets were white. Aside from the crappy visibility, I saw a car fishtail ahead of me and then a block later did the same when I tapped my brakes.
NOT having any interest in a white-knuckle gladiator skid to the highway, I pulled into a grocery store and paced its confines disconsolately. I had meant to go to the grocery store! But at the end of a bunch of other errands, not as an hour-long interlude while waiting for the deluge to thin. I stared out the window by the hot bar, coincidentally next to the store manager, and asked him when it would stop; he guessed 2 PM, which wasn't so far off. So I ate crappy grocery store hot bar food and read Glamour magazine and watched with amazement as other drivers did not seem worried at the pavement being light gray (if you're lucky). They're in Metrowest, though; they drive in snow a lot more often than I do, and anyway half of them drive SUVs. A little after 2, behold, the hand-sized flakes had shrunk to tiny pinpoint size, and I trundled back to the car (and had to clear it again, at least another 1.5" of the heavy stuff). Never was I gladder of highway traffic, as except for the errant douchebag driver we all did 30 MPH, if that. And I made it home without squeezing the steering wheel to death.
Going out to dinner in a few minutes, and I am taking the T I tell you what. Even though the snow is over and done with.
I have moved mostly over to Dreamwidth. Please comment there if you can.