February Really IS The Longest Month

[dr_phil_physics]

Sunday

We stayed in all day, watched the horizontal snow. We were safe, warm. Eventually the snow stopped and we managed, one way or another, to make it to work on Monday. Not everyone was so clever.

During the white-out, blizzard conditions and -20degF wind chills of Sunday's storm, there were a lot of idiots out there still trying to drive. Why? Near us, I-96 at Exit 16, there was a fifty car pile-up. Folks, if you can't see beyond your hood, why are you still driving at even 35mph? Two cars crashed and after a rescue vehicle came, IT got hit by people and the chain reaction kept coming.

Of course, it wasn't news. Not a 50-car pile-up. Not when there was a 68-car pile-up in Pennsylvania. Then there's I-94 near Kalamazoo. I swear they must have a remote control so that when the weather gets bad they just remotely jackknife a few trucks on either side of K-zoo so they can close the highway. Happens all the time. And lately, an odd number of truck accidents have involved meat. Or beer. Or bottled water. No wonder food prices keep going up.

Idiots

But there will always be idiots. Including a friend/colleague of mine, who explained to me on Monday morning that he and his wife tried to drive to Chicago from K-zoo on Sunday. During the blizzard. What part of stay off the roads did you not get? Well, they saw the reports but figured they'd try it anyone, and test it for at least one exit. On I-94? The Death Trap? You're an idiot! I told him so directly. He grinned and said that they were going only about 30mph and couldn't see very well. Duh. They got off at the Matewan exit -- and then couldn't see the road and overpass to get to the other side and turn around and come back. Well, double DUH! Idiots!

I told him they should've taken Amtrak to Chicago. He said that due to the weather, the train is often late these days. Uh, yeah. And your point? I told him that's why you take the train the day before. Oh why can't people realize that you can't drive through just anything?

Tuesday

For a weather pattern that was supposed to leave here, it started snowing early in Kalamazoo. By the time I was getting ready to leave around 3pm, I had to brush off the windshield a second time after brushing off the rest of the Blazer. And that was before I started.

Coming and going lately, my 1:15 to 1:30 commute is taking two hours or more each way. Today was about 2:15. Heavy snow, but fortunately not the big winds of the weekend. Highway speeds typically about 35-60 mph. No one in my vicinity did anything stupid. Well, there was the woman in a minivan trying to get going from a light on West Main in K-zoo and spinning her front wheel drive -- and flooring it further. Lady, you've already lost the static friction. Flooring it ain't gonna help much, except get you into trouble. And I'll be pissed if you swerve into me.

700 church and activity closings on Sunday -- we did not go see Ragtime at GVSU. 350 school closings on Monday. Only 1 closing on Tuesday. Despite the limited traction, they will have the roads cleared enough on Wednesday. Fortunately, no snow forecast for the afternoon -- I have to teach until 5pm. So much for trying to drive only in daylight right now...

By The Way

Oh, and tonight? A truck overturned on I-94 in Kalamazoo. With cows. There were cows wandering around. Huh. And right after they got the cows, the truck and cleared it up, another semi jackknifed closing the road again.

Isn't there a poem about how there's something that doesn't like a highway? Isn't that the one about taking the road everyone else is trying to drive on like idiots? No? Maybe their should be.

Dr. Phil

Comments

[albogdan.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of our yearly drives to New York for Christmas. One year we must have passed a dozen burned-out, toppled over semi-trucks.

My favorite blizzards memory was when I was a kid. My father insisting we could continue even with the blizzard. All we had to do was follow the car in front of us. His logic was that if each car follows the one in front of it, and the farthest car was out of the blizzard, we would be pulled like a chain. We followed the car and it started going up, up, up, and then vanished. The car he picked chose to drive directly across the highway, over the mound separating the highway, and into a ditch. We pulled over and waited.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

:o)
Reminds me of the time we had a cow-trailer flip on I-10 at the base of the Franklin Mountains. They rounded up most of the cows, but several got away, heading up into the mountains and the military reserve land.

I always wondered if they made a concerted effort to flip the trailer. "Everyone, to Bossy's side of the trailer!"

I'm certain some sacrificed their lives for the freedom of a few....

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Not sure if that's a Far Side cartoon or needs to be a Claymation movie a la Chicken Run. (grin)

Dr. Phil