18 Comments

Whenever I see the news coverage of this ice driving (or experience people driving in a lot of rain), I usually think of the scene from Driving Miss Daisy where Hoke says that everyone out in the weather looks like they're driving in the funny papers.

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I am so sad that there are likely readers out there who have never seen Snowpiercer and will not appreciate the beauty of three simple words:

"Food’s great, too."

Well done, sir.

My last snow driving experience was in Cleveland around xmas about 4 years ago, two cars traveling to a common desination, I had the kids (and gifts) in my van, and following my mom and wife (who had GPS/nav instructions for our desitination). Dad was home sick, and is probably top ten for winter drivers, based on his trunk stash. Mom has lived in Cleveland her whole life, and is no stranger to a snowy road.

We get a big flurry mid-fiesta, so the drive home is going to be an adventure. I'm confident, but completely unfamiliar with the location. So I am following mom, and first she misses a turn (yay memory from the trip to Auntie anonymous's). I keep following. We take a long way around to finally get on freeway, and mom proceeds to drive 25 MPH on the expressway, in the middle lane. Of course, I am following, partly because I know better than to take off like a bat out of hades, lest she get stranded in a snow bank or some other catastrophe only she is capable of. I'm the tail of this crawling expressway train, though, so all I can do is have a panic attack about getting rear-ended, lost down another wrong turn, or having to break up a fight among the kids while trying to navigate the slushy roads.

The poor kids, thankfully they knew to sit back and relax, as dad spent the better part of an hour screaming at his windshield, wanting nothing more than to gun the accelerator, hit the left lane, and blaze past the rolling chicane my mother was creating. We made it home, I unloaded the kids, and spent the next few hours twitching from anxiety. Never again. We all go in one car, or we hire mom an uber and go get her car a day or two later when dad is not under the weather.

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My most comparably awful experience was when we got our puppy (10 years ago next month!). We were living in NYC at the time but got her from a breeder in Akron. Drove out, stayed with friends in Akron the night before, picked her up and prepared to drive back to New York.

Left Akron in a cold rain... by the time we hit that *really* desolate stretch of I-80 in the Pennsylvania Wilds, it had turned to a heavy snow. We were stuck going about 30mph, white-knuckle the whole way, as the storm traveled with us, basically also at 30mph. Despite being in a 4WD truck and having experience in the snow, I was terrified and resolved to get off at the next town. Problem is, in that part of I-80, the "next town" ended up being an hour away. I passed at least six cars in the ditch before we found a place we could get off and get a motel for the night.

Puppy slept in my (then-girlfriend, now wife)'s lap the entire time, with no idea how scared we were.

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Grew up in Michigan. Needed to read this before going law school in Virginia. On the plus side, I was treated as a hero when I made it to the liquor store and back during a snow day.

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Seeing weather like this I can say that being a native Floridian I have never had to experience this (I'm 36 and still never seen snow).

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It's magical the first time each year, and then it's terrible.

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I miss the winters in New Hampshire- it would snow in buckets and cubes, but then the following day you could get out and do fun winter things. Here? it's just cold.

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It's marvelous to visit, and then leave, and not see again for ten years. Not that I have experience with this, or anything.

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Icehead here. Hahahahaha.

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I thought of you when writing this. Meanwhile, Louisville is essentially sold out of salt, and we're supposed to get an additional 6-10" today on top of the layer of ice we've had since last week.

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At least Louisville is entirely flat, and has no hills to speak of to traverse.

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Haha. There are ten houses on my street, and I have one of perhaps three driveways that is useable under these conditions. One entire side of the street has basement-level garages.

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Well, won't that be festive?

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This. Is. Amazing.

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Snowpiercer is such an underrated movie.

The one piece of advice missing from Gary is watch the local news and pay attention to the weather folks. It still boggles my mind when huge events like these occur and people go "I didnt know this was going to happen." Winter weather doesn't just suddenly pop up like a late afternoon thunderstorm in the summer time. It takes days and weeks to form.

Gary's right, stay off the roads unless you have to and if you are on the roads dont be stupid. Even born and raised Midwesterners can find themselves doing 320s into a guardrail on the Ohio Turnpike due to black ice (one more lane and I would have had a 360 and left unscathed).

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Hey, Cookbook. Following up from last week, but this thread will give you more reasons always to buy the good jelly. https://twitter.com/ProfessorPerino/status/1361050887972663298

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Oh, wow. It's The Good Jelly in ways I hadn't even imagined!

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Mr. Cookbook, I feel personally attacked. These bits of wisdom come in very handy when you're sixteen and have to drive to like, jazz band or swim practice.

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