Have I ever mentioned that I hate snow?
I hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

This morning as I'm driving in to work, I'm traveling for the most part between 30 & 40 mph.  As I get onto 422 West, I find myself with a number of other people following three snow plows that are working the breadth of the lanes between them.  Which was nice, because even though I'm crawling along behind them, I'm getting to where I need to be and doing it safely. 

I split off from this convoy to grab my morning cup of Wawa coffee and to fill up with gas. I get back on the road heading into Reading and just as I'm approaching reading, my windshield wipers start icing up, causing them to leave streaks of water across my field of vision.  About the same time, my windshield also decides it's going to take another crack at fogging up.  So I enter Reading with severely reduced visibility with no safe place to pull off and deal with the wiper blades due to the structure of the highway and other traffic.  Needless to say, I hit the left hand exit for Whatever Road and totally blind and confused I take the exit when I should have remained on the highway.  At this point, I'm freaking out because I have no idea where I'm at and can still hardly see anything.  Anyways, I get to the bottom of the exit where I figure out where I'm at and that straight ahead puts me back on the highway where I need to be.

In Berk's county, Highway 222 is the forgotton step child.  And as such, can be somewhat mean spirited.  Think of what we would have gotten had Drako Malfo grown up in the conditions that Harry Potter did and you'll get the idea.

So, I travel 90% of my usual 40 minute commute, which today is probably more like an hour and 15 minutes, only to hit the transiition where 422 magically becomes 222 ( Yes, Pennsylvania is strange like that- you have to exit to stay on the same highway)  I come arount the curve from the shopping center it flows past with no issues only to completely lose control of my vehicle when I hit the straightaway.

So here I am, in a completely out of control car that is sliding and fishtailing back and forth as the slide control built into the vehicle tries desperately to regain control.  In the cabin, lights are flashing, alarms are sounding and I'm desperately checking every direction for potential hazards or threats that I may be about to strike.

So I'm watching the barrier on the left slowly approaching and I think to myself that it is getting a little closer than I'm comfortable with.  I start to frantically turn the wheel of my car so that I can change direction.  Slowly, this takes affect and I'm now drifting gradually over to the right.

At which point I begin to think I'm getting a bit too close to the edge of the road for my liking and and begin to frantically turn the wheel the other way.

At which point some sadistic god or godess (I don't discriminate, except against all of them) decides to have a little fun and allows my front passenger tire to grab a bit of traction.

Yay me.  Suddenly instead of gradually sliding out of control to the left or right, I am now rapidly spinning in a clockwise fashion only to come to rest off of the road facing oncoming traffic.

The entire time I'm thinking to myself, 'I'm probably not going to die, but I really hope I don't get too much damage to my car.'  And thankfully to the built in slide control and my ability to not completely spaz out in a crisis, both the car and my trousers are safe.

lol, sounds like an interesting event!

Hmm, glad you made it ok.

Snow?

Wut's that?

-- tsreknor

Weehaaaw! Sounds like fun. Glad your trousers were safe.

This is precisely why my preferred mode of transportation is hover board. I just can't go over water, because hover boards can't go over water; you need "pow-wah".

Lessons learned all around. Good talk.

When conditions get like that down here going slow is the motto.

Not a lot of fun Fluffy. The best time I ever had in the snow here in Minnesota was in good old St. Paul about 11 years ago. They don't plow the alleys, and sometimes (always) they get a little tricky in winter. I was driving a McNeilius dual drive garbage truck from the right side stand up drive position, with the right side door open in very cold weather. That facilitates me doing my job with a little more speed. I'm going down a hill in the alley, and it's nothing but glare ice. No ABS brakes on this model, so I'm pumping the brakes to maintain a straight glide path, and desperately trying to slow down, only I'm increasing speed coming down the hill. At the bottom of the hill straight ahead is a cross street, and a park. The cross street is flat, and there are patches of ice, and patches of bare road also. As I exit the alley perpendicular to the road, I turn my wheel sharply to the left, but the truck continues straight, as the wheels are still on ice. Finally, the wheels hit the bare road, and the truck turns sharply to the left, but the problem now is that the far side curb is fast approaching. With the sudden turn to the left, the truck is listing heavily to the right, and the platform my feet are on in the truck are only inches from the curb. I'm thinking that the truck's wheels are going to hit the curb, and it's going to roll over. Making an executive decision, I decide to abandon ship, and step out onto the park's snowbanks, and run along. Only totally unexpectedly, the truck rights itself, and continues it's turn to the left, with no driver behind the wheel. It's losing speed now that it's on dry road, but is puttering along at idle speed. There are parked cars along the left side of the road, as well as houses on that side of the street. The wheel corrects back to the right a little bit from back pressure from the road, but not a lot. I am now running after my truck trying to catch it in snow boots, and bulky clothing. Since the turn has become more gradual, the truck passes between two parked cars at an angle, and hits neither of them. As luck would have it along this glide path, there was a space that would take a couple of cars being parked, but the spaces were empty. As luck would also have it, this spot had no hydrants or light poles, or signs either. The impact with the curb and the snowbank as the tires hopped over the curb and rolled through the snowbank significantly slow the truck, but it is still moving forward. I am able to now gain on it. The truck now crosses the sidewalk, and is headed for a house. It mushes into the snow, and slows further, and now I am almost to the cab. I jump in, and pull the parking brake, and the truck stops. My heart is beating like a trip hammer. Directly ahead of the front bumper of the truck is the gas service meter to the house, and I stopped less than a foot from it. I look around, and no one is about. I carefully back out of there, thankful that I didn't have a heart attack right there on the spot. Ah the wonders of driving in the ice and snow!

You Sir are 100% Win with that story.  The next time (and for me there will be because it happens about once a year for me) I am going to be thinking.  'This isn't so bad.  I could be in a residential area driving an out of control garbage truck.'

That is an amazing story.

Wow!  What a story Eddie!  When's the movie come out?  hehehe

For the record...I hate snow as well. I mean I REALLY, REALLY hate it!

I have another one, only I wasn't in the car, nor was I a witness to it. A group of friends and I were meeting at a friends house on a very snowy day in the winter of 1978. We were all relatively new drivers with only a couple of years of experience at the most. Most of us lived within 5 miles, but a couple of guys were coming from St. Paul, and they had this harrowing experience. As they were driving down an interstate highway (the speed limit was 55 then) going perhaps 45 because of the weather conditions with heavy snow and icy roads, Mike (the driver) sees traffic brake lights ahead, so he takes his foot off the gas, and is coasting. The car ahead of him brakes, and he sees the brake lights reflected in the road. Black Ice! The car ahead of him fishtails to the right, and hits (back end first) the car to Mike's right, and ahead of him one. Because of the impact, this car careens out of the lane to the right shoulder. The car next to Mike on his right panics, and hits the brakes, and he loses control, and once again, the car fishtails to the right, away from Mike. That car is now going much slower, and Mike passes him. Mike didn't know if that car was hit or not. The car ahead of Mike now fishtails to the left, after the impact with the car ahead and on the right, so violently that he leaves the center lane, crosses the left lane, and passes into the median ditch.  On his way to the ditch, he barely misses Mike, then passes between two cars on Mike's left without hitting either one of them. The guy to Mike's left, brakes, because he sees the guy ahead of Mike, who impacted the car on the right, now coming at him, and he starts to fishtail towards Mike, and slows, enough so that the car going toward the median misses him. However, he is fishtailing towards Mike. He is also now going slower than Mike, and his rear end swings into Mike's lane, only partially, and without hitting Mike, but he had the bad luck to get hit by the guy following Mike. All around Mike there are crashes and carnage of cars, but he makes it through without a scratch, and without losing control, or even fishtailing.

After we hear his story, we go out to look at his car. I walk around to the front of his car, and I see a rather large dent in the grill. "Hey Mikey" I say; "It looks like you got hit after all." While we were inside listening to his story, someone had come around the corner, and slid into his car with what must have been the very edge of the front end of their car. We could see their tracks in the snow. They had backed out, and left the area without leaving a note. From there, we were going bowling, and the damage looked slight, but actually, they knocked his drive shaft out of the transmission with the impact, so he couldn't go anywhere. Had to have it towed.

This is one of the reasons I will never again return to the snowbound regions of this earth to habitate.

Speaking of snow, I should be back online soon.  We finished the install of our new furnace.  Almost $10,000!  Good Lord.  Gonna be bean suppers here for awhile, but should have enough to play VO again shortly.  Have missed you guys.  By the way, it starts snowing here (again) tomorrow night.  But now we have heat!

Well, I'm glad ya got heat Hugh!  Look forward to seeing ya in-game when ya can.