Skidding off the road has to do with the wrong tires and drivers not used to ice. It’s a constant fucking heart attack if you’ve never driven on it. I still hate it and my daily commute is almost 90 miles.
Around here people tend to think that the best way to stop a vehicle is to slam on the breaks and just hold it to the floor. Even with ABS, it's still amazing how many people don't understand basic physics, and have never taken the time to even loosely understand how their vehicle might operate in adverse conditions and how to drive under such circumstances.
It’s called “driving slower”. That’s how we roll in winter, literally. We leave earlier if we don’t have four wheel drive.
I'm sure every single one of those folks in the ditch were sitting there wondering "But I had it in 4WD, how could this have happened?"
People in Houston don’t change how they drive regardless of the weather. It’s as if the world around them ceases to exist and there is no one on the road except for them. They will drive right onto a frozen on-ramp at 70 and smash immediately into the wall. When we have the occasional snow/ice storm, I will pass 2 dozen wrecks that have yet to see an emergency vehicle. They’re a bunch of drunk 5 year olds.
100% same here. I carry a custom emergency kit in my truck, not for me or my family, but for the people I encounter over the course of my time on the road. And damn if I don't have to re-stock it at least twice a year. When the weather gets bad, people either decide to go 30 mph slower than posted on the highway, or they fucking floor it and go like 90 because I guess hydroplaning is fun? Both cases are insanely dangerous, and I don't understand it. I truly feel bad for the emergency services around here. I feel like if you did something stupid that required you having to get rescued from being stuck, on fire, wrecked, whatever, you should have to pay for the EMS, fire and police.
I used to drive an 18 wheeler through the entirety of Texas twice a week. The whole length of I-20 and I-10 to the west Texas border. If it ever snowed and it happened twice that I remember, I got the fuck off the road during the day. I'd go to sleep and wake up about midnight to drive, when less idiots would be on the road. That gave me about six hours to get past the snow before the masses got back on the road. I would do the same for all the other southeast states, too. Up north, I just kept going cause I could reasonably expect other drivers to behave properly. Intellicast is forecasting 8-12" here. Ima bout to go get some bread.
We camped under a big mountain in Peru on a very high pass (15k+ feet), arrived on a beautiful, clear day: Spoiler Overnight, we got the most incredible thundersnow display, and it was causing mini-avalanches to come down off the mountain peak. No danger to us, but the sound was unbelievable - the absolute dead quiet of a snowstorm in the middle of nowhere, interrupted by flashes of lightning and booms of thunder, and then the most incredible deep rumbling of an avalanche that you felt deep in your chest. Ridiculous. Woke up to this: Spoiler
Skidding off the road has to do with going too fast, and not being slow and smooth enough with your driver inputs. Dry conditions mean the tires have lots of grip, so you can mash the brakes or accelerator, or crank the wheel, and the tires will provide enough grip to do what you asked for. Once that frictions drops, you have to be more gentle and smooth with your inputs, or else the tires slide, resulting in you spinning the tires (mashing the accelerator), or sliding (locking up the brakes or turning the steering wheel too much). The end result is the same... you go from having friction, to not having friction, and you're sliding. Combine that with the fact that roads are crowned, and you see people getting into slides, and then gravity pulls them down the crown of the road, into the ditch. I've said it a number of times... North American drivers are not trained very well... they are taught the absolute minimum to not kill someone. If you have kids, the best thing you can do is enrol them in a one-day "advanced driver training course" that teaches collision avoidance, emergency braking, and skid control. It will open their eyes, and possibly save their lives.
Locusts when? MALIBU (CBSLA) — Southern Californians already on edge from wildfires were shaken awake overnight by a small earthquake that struck the Malibu area. The quake struck at 12:44 a.m. at a depth of around 9 miles. It’s epicenter was 4.3 miles north-northeast of Malibu Beach.
Had about 5-6 inches of snow last night. We have been without power for almost 24 hours now and it is so cold inside the house that the beer on the counter chills itself at room temp. At least I got to take my son sledding this morning and had his first snowball fight.
Build a chair/table bonfire on the living room floor. It's just like camping, without those pesky mosquitoes!
Been a long fucking week... finally get a night to just sit back and relax... Made some really REALLY good mac and cheese with some killer cheese, some garlic, and some smoked bacon. Spoiler Then cracked open a nice bottle of Aussie shiraz: Spoiler then did up some sous vide tenderloins... Spoiler Now it's time to sit back, relax, and do absolutely fuck all. I might even go have me a bonfire in the back yard, smoke a cigar, and get hammered on some Polar Bears.
For all the amazon whores like me, their deals this year are not like previous years. They’re absolutely insane. In a good way. Watch their deals closely. There’s a bunch of stuff on knives, knife sharpeners, and power tools.
I've got a box of Pinot on the desk beside me, and I fully intend to convert it into an excruciating hangover. There are 18 business days left in 2017, and I've got 17 vacation days left that expire at the end of the year.