The beauty of driving in the snow

I wake up this morning to the drone of the guy on the radio announcing that everywhere but where I work is closed today because of the threat of snow. In Baltimore, it doesn't take much snow to get us worked up. They are predicting 4-8" today, and though there was no snow on the ground when I got up, virtually all of the school systems were closing. It may sound ridiculous on the surface, especially to anyone living north of the Mason-Dixon line. But if you think about it when you are pretty certain that you'll have to close school early at best which is an enormous headache for bus drivers, teachers, administrators and parents, it makes more sense just to stay closed.

Anyway, I got myself together eventually (It's always hard to get motivated to go to work when Mrs. Dave is resting peacefully in bed still. The urge to stay in/get back in bed with her and snuggle up is very strong, but I managed to resist it. So, I get on the road and it has just started snowing. The flakes aren't too big, but at least it's not sleet. When I get on the highway, I found myself almost mesmerized by the way the snow was blowing around the road. Just beautiful swirling wisps of white dancing just above the surface of the road. I guess it was just a moment of unexpected beauty in an otherwise ugly setting. I've seen them before, but something about them today really made them outstanding.

Luckily for me the drive in was easy and incident free. But I love driving in the snow except when traffic is really bad. When I was in college, I used to take my '82 Buick Century to the local Pizza Hut parking lot and just spin out and slide all over the place for fun when it snowed. Cool thing was, it taught me how to handle the car in those situations. I guess by knowing what to do to get the car to spin or slide, I learned not to do that when there is an emergency. And if you can get an '82 Buick out of a slide or spin, you can get anything out of a slide or spin.

Dave

Dave