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Whew!
I just had two extremely frightening hours.
It was snowing when I got up this morning, but there was only an inch or so on the ground. I figured I could make it in to work with no problem.
As I drove, the snow got heavier and heavier. The radio announced a winter storm warning for the day, 8-10 inches for our area. The snow would continue until 8am the next morning. I kept driving.
I pulled into Franklin/Dean station in time for the train, but the lot was full. So I headed out for Franklin/Forge Park.
The roads started getting bad, and then they got very bad. At a traffic light on a main road I lost control of the car. It lurched forward and sideways, partly into the intersection, and crunched into the curb on the right. Fortunately, the curb stopped me without doing much damage.
But I was starting to get extremely nervous. I'd been driving quite slowly when I'd lost control, and I've never seen roads get so bad so quickly. In fact, no matter how slowly I went I had almost no control; the steering had that mushy quality, not responding well to the wheel. Basically I was sledding.
I lost control again, but managed to regain it. In the process, I realized that there was no way in hell that I was going to go to work - the situation was much too dangerous. So I took a turn that headed me for home.
I was going less than 20 mph, with a number of cars behind me. The road on the opposite side was clear. I dialed Teri to let her know not to try to take Sebastian to school today. As I was telling her how bad the roads were, I suddenly lost all control of the car.
I've been driving in New England for more than 20 years. I've never caused an accident. My judgement and driving skills, in other words, are pretty good.
I'd been going very slowly. Nonetheless, the car went into an uncontrollable skid. I let out a long scream and dropped the phone. The nose of my car swung left, across the line of incoming traffic, and the rear swung wildly to the right. I spun like mad, and by the time the car stopped I was completely turned around and in the opposite lane. Oddly enough this is exactly the same thing that happened to a Rolls Royce near me more than a decade ago. That time, my car was nearly totalled.
Fortunately there were no cars in the opposite lane. If there had been, I would not be writing this now; I would be in a hospital. It was also extremely lucky that the SUV behind me had excellent brakes; it stopped less than three feet from the front left corner of my car, which was protruding out into my old lane.
I was in shock, of course. After a moment I unfroze, then backed my car off the road into a nearby driveway. My phone started ringing.
It had apparently been a pretty exciting call, from Teri's end; there I was telling her the roads weren't safe, then suddenly a loud scream, and the line was disconnected (the phone had folded up when I dropped it). I told her what had happened, hung up, and got back on the road.
It was a long drive home, and I kept to under 10mph. Even at that speed my control was poor. Cars lined up behind me now and again, but no one complained. Finally I got home. The whole thing had taken about two hours.
Damn, that was a scary experience.
It was snowing when I got up this morning, but there was only an inch or so on the ground. I figured I could make it in to work with no problem.
As I drove, the snow got heavier and heavier. The radio announced a winter storm warning for the day, 8-10 inches for our area. The snow would continue until 8am the next morning. I kept driving.
I pulled into Franklin/Dean station in time for the train, but the lot was full. So I headed out for Franklin/Forge Park.
The roads started getting bad, and then they got very bad. At a traffic light on a main road I lost control of the car. It lurched forward and sideways, partly into the intersection, and crunched into the curb on the right. Fortunately, the curb stopped me without doing much damage.
But I was starting to get extremely nervous. I'd been driving quite slowly when I'd lost control, and I've never seen roads get so bad so quickly. In fact, no matter how slowly I went I had almost no control; the steering had that mushy quality, not responding well to the wheel. Basically I was sledding.
I lost control again, but managed to regain it. In the process, I realized that there was no way in hell that I was going to go to work - the situation was much too dangerous. So I took a turn that headed me for home.
I was going less than 20 mph, with a number of cars behind me. The road on the opposite side was clear. I dialed Teri to let her know not to try to take Sebastian to school today. As I was telling her how bad the roads were, I suddenly lost all control of the car.
I've been driving in New England for more than 20 years. I've never caused an accident. My judgement and driving skills, in other words, are pretty good.
I'd been going very slowly. Nonetheless, the car went into an uncontrollable skid. I let out a long scream and dropped the phone. The nose of my car swung left, across the line of incoming traffic, and the rear swung wildly to the right. I spun like mad, and by the time the car stopped I was completely turned around and in the opposite lane. Oddly enough this is exactly the same thing that happened to a Rolls Royce near me more than a decade ago. That time, my car was nearly totalled.
Fortunately there were no cars in the opposite lane. If there had been, I would not be writing this now; I would be in a hospital. It was also extremely lucky that the SUV behind me had excellent brakes; it stopped less than three feet from the front left corner of my car, which was protruding out into my old lane.
I was in shock, of course. After a moment I unfroze, then backed my car off the road into a nearby driveway. My phone started ringing.
It had apparently been a pretty exciting call, from Teri's end; there I was telling her the roads weren't safe, then suddenly a loud scream, and the line was disconnected (the phone had folded up when I dropped it). I told her what had happened, hung up, and got back on the road.
It was a long drive home, and I kept to under 10mph. Even at that speed my control was poor. Cars lined up behind me now and again, but no one complained. Finally I got home. The whole thing had taken about two hours.
Damn, that was a scary experience.
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That's one of the reasons I love CA - no snow. Well, unless yer up in the mountains, but effectively, for me, there's no snow.
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Driving and skidding is the only really scary thing about winter, and it's usually pretty rare. If I'd known how bad the roads were that day, I'd have never gone out.
And at least I don't have to worry about earthquakes and mudslides! Tornadoes and drought and floods are pretty much unknown here, too.
On the other hand, if I moved to Florida my vote would become much more effective (assuming that the voting systems in any way reflect the votes that are actually put into them), and political activism would actually mean something, perhaps.
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Stay Home. Read This Instead (http://www.livejournal.com/users/ononion/1576.html) and keep your family safe... :-)
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I love Chick parodies...
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