Winter Driving Courtesy

Last night I made a trip to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law. The part I dreaded about the trip was the winter weather that we have had the past few days. I don't like driving in the snow, especially when there are other people driving in snow. Luckily, last night there was only one stretch of the highway that had visible snow on the road. I took note of some things as I was driving that really bug me about driving in the winter, particularly when other drivers do, or don't do, them. It annoys me when:

1. Drivers don't knock off those huge ice chunks behind their wheels (see picture below). - First of all, those things look disgusting. Secondly, when you are driving down the freeway at 55 miles per hour on an icy road and you hit a pot hole those big chunks fall off. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY. This leaves anywhere from one to four basketball-sized hunks of black/brown ice right in front of the Altima behind you. You may say, but if it's an SUV behind me, it's no big deal. However you would be wrong because eventually there will be an Altima behind you. And that Altima will have to either swerve out of the way (not a great idea on a crowded icy freeway) or hold its breath and hope the ice doesn't knock its exhaust pipe off. So next time you go to drive your car, kick those sick chunks of crap off of your wheel wells. Or park next to me, because I kick them off of cars I walk past too.


2. Drivers only scrape a basketball-sized hole in the ice on their windshield, like this guy. - I really don't get this one. There is absolutely no way the driver of a car like that can see anything but a round patch of pavement directly in front of their hood. I mean, they don't even scrape any off of the driver's window to look beside them. My guess is that they think their defroster will get rid of all of the ice during their 10 minute drive to wherever. But when the ice is thick and covered in snow, it doesn't. I walk to school for the most part during the winter. I see these cars drive by all the time and I stay as far away from them as possible.

3. Drivers don't scrape the snow and ice off of their whole car. This one specifically refers to when they are driving on the freeway. In the morning to drive 5 minutes on surface streets to school, I don't care about this one. But if you're going to drive on the freeway, I think you should clear the snow and packed ice off of your whole vehicle. Why? Because going 65 miles per hour, it all blows off anyway, on the car right behind you. Ice on your hood and roof also fall off, right in front of the Altima behind you. Mostly though, it's just a nuisance, making whoever is driving behind them use their wipers even though it's not snowing outside.

On a side note, I want to give thanks to the many plow drivers on the streets. Whoever you are, you do an excellent job, at least in Utah, of keeping the roads clear of snow. That job must really stink. You have to drive all night and all day back and forth over the same roads cleaning off asphalt that you already plowed 4 times. Kind of like cleaning up after children. You guys have my respect. Plow on, my friends.

A Few Pearls of Wisdom

Well, I'm only 23 years old (almost 24) but I feel like I still have a few nougat filled morsels of wisdom that I can pass on to a lot of people. Enjoy...

1. Rules are usually rules for a good reason and yes, they do apply to you. - A lot of times, people think that rules somehow don't apply to them. I see this all the time at work. People carelessly take a Jamba Juice into the theaters even though it's posted in 3 inch letters not to. This almost always results in a large carpet cleaning job. They blatantly cross caution tape and wet wax signs in order to tromp through the hallway, leaving their size 9's imprinted in the otherwise glassy floor wax. But I guess the most blatant abuse of a rule was witnessed by me this morning on my way to work. Imagine my surprise when I looked up at Y Mountain in the early twilight to find it on fire! What happened was no mystery to me. Obviously, some geek decided to light fireworks on the Y in honor of Pioneer Day and shot a roman candle into a dry tinder-ized bush. The fire spread from the bottom right corner of the Y to cover about 1/8th of the mountain face. Here's a tip... Next time, when the firework stand says don't shoot off fireworks on the mountain... DON'T DO IT!!

2. Global Warming is real. - If you don't believe me on this one, go ride your bike behind a bus for 15 seconds.

3. If you see a movie on the opening night, DON'T talk about it except the following subjects: who acts in it, if you liked it or not, if it was scary, the amazing graphics, and if you would see it again at full price. Nobody wants to know how so-and-so kills who's-it. They don't want to know what amazing trick the protagonist does on a unicycle to save the damsel from the mutant cheese blob. Just keep it to yourself. There are great things called journals and tape recorders that would be glad to listen to you. But seriously..... I had the whole beginning of Batman: The Dark Knight ruined for me at work this past week by one kid who's seen it twice already. Show a little respect.

4. If you don't know how to do something, ask. - There's a kid who really has this one down at work. Yesterday, he was asked to sweep the floor. He said ok, but then asked, "After I sweep it, what do I do with the stuff I sweep up?" I guess he's never used a dustpan before... Now, he may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he figures out what he needs to do and then he does it.

Most who read this blog have probably already mastered these traits. But I know that you know people who haven't, so spread the word.