Snow day.....

DC doesn't get much snow, and the way people drive when it snows in DC makes you realize they must all be from a much warmer part of this country, or perhaps from some warmer country, period. Now, granted, I'm from a much warmer part of this country where snow only falls in the mountains 50 miles away, but for some unknown reason I don't seem to have a problem. Driving in snow is a simple process. First and foremost you have to watch the a-holes around you who think they can still drive 40 in a 25 mile zone and/or 70 on the beltway. I drive in the city every day and get really irritated at slow drivers, phone talkers, lipstick or mascara putting-on women, and food eaters, but in the snow? Not so much. I stay way back from the guy in front of me, and watch anyone behind or to the sides of me because I know what they're thinking....'I can go a little faster, this road isn't slick....woops!' and they're off the road. I don't want to be in the way when that brilliant thought goes through their tiny little brains. Ice is an entirely different issue. On Christmas Eve-Eve 1999 it took me 4 1/2 hours to drive from Reston to Rockville. The weatherman, in all his brilliance, had predicted freezing rain beginning at 8 p.m. I left work at 4, the freezing rain began at 4:15. The 4 1/2 hour trip taught me a couple of things: 1) VDOT should install porta pottys along 495 and 2) always go to the bathroom before leaving anywhere to get anywhere if there is the slightest possibility you won't get to where it is you're going within the next 4 1/2 hours.