...Weather 'tis Nobler...

[ellyssian]

Botched Billy S. quotes aside, I'm keeping a weather eye on whether or not the weather situation is such that I should head home.

I have all-wheel-drive, and I'm not afraid to use it.

However, all the maroons in big HUGE SUVs - some of whom even have four wheel drive! - will be on the road, along with all the hapless lesser beings in front and, worse still, rear wheel drive. I'm not so much worried about me being able to pilot home in this massive 0.25" layer of snow and ice (climbing to an estimated 1.5" of snow at home) as I am concerned about those who don't understand things like proper distance between moving vehicles based on speed and road condition, let alone the whole Panic! I saw a snowflake! thing.

Funny thing, this morning. I came in a bit late, trying to make sense of the forecasts, and waiting for the wheatherfolk to come to a consensus. When they finally narrowed down the potential snowfall for my neighborhood to be somewhere in the one to twelve inches range, I decided that was close enough and headed in to the office.

Comments

When I lived in Colorado Springs,

[slamlander.livejournal.com]

I had two choices of a way to work, at MCI's Garden of the Gods facility. One choice was I-25. The other choices was a little known and always iced-during-winter backroad, that usually had at least an inch of solid ice on it. I was driving a Jeep CJ5 with standard 10.5x31x15 Mud and Snow tires (I used the same tires all year long).

Creeping along that backroad, at 10-15mph, in 4-wheel-low, on two inches of ice, topped by an inch of powder, was both more beautiful and infinitely safer than taking I-25, which I only took twice. Amazing how many folks think that it is perfectly safe to cruise along at 65mph on two inches of fresh powder. You may have four-wheel drive but everyone has four-wheel brakes and they all slide equally well. Four-wheel drive will only get you up to a speed where you can get into serious trouble.