Richard
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2000
- Messages
- 4,826
- Location
- Knoxville, TN
- Tractor
- International 1066 Full sized JCB Loader/Backhoe and a John Deere 430 to mow with
Originally from southern Ohio, I grew up "with" snow, however, I'm aware my experience with snow is not to be confused with those who get "real" snow /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
Anyway, having lived in the Knoxville area for some years now, we've not had much snow at all for a number of years, and when we do, the 'locals' just freak out as might be expected because of their relative lack of experience.
Yesterday while at work, we got a snowfall. My wife was home and talking to me on phone (nagging? harping? /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif ) about me getting my butt home and getting it home now before "the snow storm".
Me, smug in my ways, laughed it off.
I left office at 4:00. I meandered to the grocery. I was in thin traffic until "the left turn".
as I came onto a straightaway, I saw maybe 30 cars ahead of me, part of reason for our going slow. someone was driving about .0042 feet per hour, hitting brakes about as often as one can hit them without riding them. Road was snowy/slushy/icy mix. sigh... NO vehicles in front of them. Never in my life, have I seen such a timid driver.
I'm not for being wreckless, so I just smiled and puttered on, pushing my clutch in... (we were going SO slow, I could not even "idle" in first gear... THAT was WAAYYYY too fast /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif )
Ahh.. anyway, my smugness came in, when during trip home (usually 25 minutes and took 3 hours), I saw maybe a dozen vehicles run off road. Interestingly enough, most were trucks.
I had plenty of time to deliberate their demise since it took me probably 10 minutes to crawl past each vehicle as we puttered on.
I got to thinking about my wife and her concerns. Here, these 4 wheel drive trucks were dumped off the road, and me? I'm puttering along in my 2 wheel drive Miata. Hmm... then I got to thinking about something Mr. Chalkley said once... the 4 wheel drive crowd might not realize that though they have 4 wheel "drive", we ALL have 4 wheel brakes.
I had lots of time to ponder many things... most of which I'll not bore you with here. I DID take a certain smugness to the reality that my little Miata was puttering on past, where these mighty beasts had failed.
Phone rings... wife...... where am I, snow is deep at home (means gravel road is covered) I told her about the trucks on side of road, no doubt, feeding (unintended) her fears. Then I told her about the MORON in front of me, who was zipping from side to side in his lane like Indy cars do to warm their tires, how the driver (while moving) opened his door, stuck his leg out to see how slippery the road was (must been TALL dude)...THEN... /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif as his passenger, not only did the same, but then (at maybe 10 mph), the passenger got TOTALLY out of the SUV, door wide open, and he stood holding onto the door while "skiing" on the icy road in traffic, letting the door and roof of SUV pull him along....
I could not belive my eyes at the stupidity.... one slip, one dry patch and he'd been down...with those tires not TOO far behind him... I must admit, though I didn't want any harm to come to him...I DID deviously root for a dry patch to come upon him to trip him up and show him how stupid he was being. I was keeping a nice stopping distance behind them so if he DID fall, I'd be no issue to him.
I got home safely. vehicles on side of road from work, all the way home. As I got home... I met my match. I was unable to get up our gravel road from the dock area /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif... here, I had just traveled through the vally of snow, fearing no evil, I had just laughed at trucks strewn all over the place and now, I, "Mr. Smug", was dead in my tracks.
Walked to the house, groceries in hand, wifey was all releived, though she had seen me "playing" down by the dock making my futile attempts to get up the road. She was all "I told you so" about the snow and the vehicles that were off the road.
Finally, I told her, I'd rather have "ME" as a driver in my car, than some of these local people (never having driven in much snow) in their trucks...because they evidently had a false sense of security and were clueless as to what they were doing/up against.
I got "the look" (wife being a local) /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif
Today... I get to take Brutus out and since we are so remote, do 2 things... first... drag my car up from the dock and get it up to the house... then, I'll go down and scrape our entire road (about 1 mile) since the county won't be out here for another week or so /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif
Oh.. and I get to stay home from work today /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif
Anyway, having lived in the Knoxville area for some years now, we've not had much snow at all for a number of years, and when we do, the 'locals' just freak out as might be expected because of their relative lack of experience.
Yesterday while at work, we got a snowfall. My wife was home and talking to me on phone (nagging? harping? /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif ) about me getting my butt home and getting it home now before "the snow storm".
Me, smug in my ways, laughed it off.
I left office at 4:00. I meandered to the grocery. I was in thin traffic until "the left turn".
as I came onto a straightaway, I saw maybe 30 cars ahead of me, part of reason for our going slow. someone was driving about .0042 feet per hour, hitting brakes about as often as one can hit them without riding them. Road was snowy/slushy/icy mix. sigh... NO vehicles in front of them. Never in my life, have I seen such a timid driver.
I'm not for being wreckless, so I just smiled and puttered on, pushing my clutch in... (we were going SO slow, I could not even "idle" in first gear... THAT was WAAYYYY too fast /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif )
Ahh.. anyway, my smugness came in, when during trip home (usually 25 minutes and took 3 hours), I saw maybe a dozen vehicles run off road. Interestingly enough, most were trucks.
I had plenty of time to deliberate their demise since it took me probably 10 minutes to crawl past each vehicle as we puttered on.
I got to thinking about my wife and her concerns. Here, these 4 wheel drive trucks were dumped off the road, and me? I'm puttering along in my 2 wheel drive Miata. Hmm... then I got to thinking about something Mr. Chalkley said once... the 4 wheel drive crowd might not realize that though they have 4 wheel "drive", we ALL have 4 wheel brakes.
I had lots of time to ponder many things... most of which I'll not bore you with here. I DID take a certain smugness to the reality that my little Miata was puttering on past, where these mighty beasts had failed.
Phone rings... wife...... where am I, snow is deep at home (means gravel road is covered) I told her about the trucks on side of road, no doubt, feeding (unintended) her fears. Then I told her about the MORON in front of me, who was zipping from side to side in his lane like Indy cars do to warm their tires, how the driver (while moving) opened his door, stuck his leg out to see how slippery the road was (must been TALL dude)...THEN... /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif as his passenger, not only did the same, but then (at maybe 10 mph), the passenger got TOTALLY out of the SUV, door wide open, and he stood holding onto the door while "skiing" on the icy road in traffic, letting the door and roof of SUV pull him along....
I could not belive my eyes at the stupidity.... one slip, one dry patch and he'd been down...with those tires not TOO far behind him... I must admit, though I didn't want any harm to come to him...I DID deviously root for a dry patch to come upon him to trip him up and show him how stupid he was being. I was keeping a nice stopping distance behind them so if he DID fall, I'd be no issue to him.
I got home safely. vehicles on side of road from work, all the way home. As I got home... I met my match. I was unable to get up our gravel road from the dock area /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif... here, I had just traveled through the vally of snow, fearing no evil, I had just laughed at trucks strewn all over the place and now, I, "Mr. Smug", was dead in my tracks.
Walked to the house, groceries in hand, wifey was all releived, though she had seen me "playing" down by the dock making my futile attempts to get up the road. She was all "I told you so" about the snow and the vehicles that were off the road.
Finally, I told her, I'd rather have "ME" as a driver in my car, than some of these local people (never having driven in much snow) in their trucks...because they evidently had a false sense of security and were clueless as to what they were doing/up against.
I got "the look" (wife being a local) /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif
Today... I get to take Brutus out and since we are so remote, do 2 things... first... drag my car up from the dock and get it up to the house... then, I'll go down and scrape our entire road (about 1 mile) since the county won't be out here for another week or so /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif
Oh.. and I get to stay home from work today /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif