[Leica] But I'm not ready!!!!

[jbcollier at shaw.ca (John Collier)]

I grew up in snow country too. I have driven just about every type of  
vehicle in all kinds of conditions and the only real troubles were  
keeping the windshields clear on early VWs (late ones had a bigger  
fan); and, keeping the wheels on the ground at high speeds in an  
early MGB. Above 70 mph with a lot of snow on the ground would cause  
the car to "snow-plane" -- kind of neat actually.

My favourite snow driving memory is of one night driving in a  
blinding blizzard. Somehow we accidently switched the lights off and  
discovered that there was a full moon out with only a thin layer of  
cloud. With the lights on, you couldn't see 50 feet. With the lights  
off, you could see for miles. It was way past cool driving along and  
only switching on our lights as we approached other vehicles. As we  
went by, the other vehicles saw what we were doing and turned their  
lights off too.

In partial defense of coastal drivers, snow with ambient temperatures  
around 0?C and the ground not frozen, makes for very, very slippery  
conditions.

John Collier

On 27-Nov-06, at 10:26 AM, Klein, Peter A wrote:

> Hoppy:  Too much information. Thank you for sharing.   :-)  In our
> defense (defence), in Seattle we don't have common spiders with the
> toxicity of cobras, and we can swim in creeks without being eaten by a
> croc.
>
> Hey, British Columbia LUGgers, how did you fare with the snow up  
> there?
> Whatcom county near the Canadian border was hit pretty hard, up to 18
> inches in some places.  A foot fell on some of the San Juans.
>
> A couple of inches is on the ground at my house.  Downtown Seattle  
> fared
> better, as whatever fell mostly melted last night.  Outlying areas  
> are a
> mess.  The weather people are predicting three more inches late this
> afternoon in Seattle, followed by sub-freezing temperatures overnight.
>
> I know the prospect of a city brought to its knees by a small  
> amount of
> snow is amusing to many.  The problem here is that it doesn't snow  
> much
> or often, and it usually melts in a couple of days.  So when it does
> snow, nobody knows how to drive in it.  And they only plow the major
> arterials, sometimes.
>
> I grew up in New England, and literally learned to drive on snow (I  
> took
> driver's education in the winter). So the snow itself doesn't  
> bother me
> too much. It's everyone else. Especially the Neanderthals who think:
> "Me have four wheel drive.  Me can go fast!"  I have twice had a  
> couple
> of twentysomethings joyously gun past me, followed by a 270 to 360
> degree skid.  One made it OK, the other broadsided a telephone pole.
>
> And then there are the people next to me at a traffic light who spin
> their wheels to get going, and slide horizontally towards me. . .
>
> Greg, I'm sure the syndrome is the same in Vancouver, and that it
> thoroughly amuses the less temperate parts of Canada.