Winter Wonderland

It's full force winter here in central Ontario. There is not much happening here on the training side of things. Heather has ok'd me taking some time off until the next test. My body has not been to happy with me the last few days so the rest is well needed. Since there isn't much to talk about in the biking world I'm going to vent a little instead.

Took the Molly Monster on a two hour snowshoe yesterday. It was fun being out in the fresh snow after the so called winter storm warning. I find it down right hilarious when I hear winter storm warning and 10-15 cm of snow in the same line. I've lived on Georgian Bay area all my life. The snow we get now compared to years back in no where near the same. I remember my father having to drag the snow blower up on the roof of the house to clear it. I wonder what would happen if we got a real winter storm, you know the old storms of 40 plus cm at a time. That's a storm.

On a shared subject, I think the driving skills of most drivers are down as much as what we rate as a winter storm. Considering that the vehicles we drive now are so technically advanced compared to 20 years ago why are these people unable to do more than 30 km'h in the snow. Thought one, if you are driving with your hazard lights on, YOU are the hazard!!! It's illegal for one to be driving with them on and if you are that afraid that you have to have them on then you should stay home till you feel safe. Thought two, when you are going to pull out in front of someone consider two things. Will you be able to accelerate to the speed limit without making the other car have to brake and two if you can't and you pull out any ones did you leave enough space for the oncoming car to slow down in control.

They have talked about winter tires as mandatory. I don't agree on that but there are some cars out there that it is a necessity. My Honda Element is front wheel drive and I wouldn't think twice about not having the winter tires on it but the Audi on the other hand is amazing in the snow. All wheel drive with so many traction control computers on it it's almost impossible to spin out. Trust me I've tried!!! If you can't get traction spend the money and get winter tires. Even for the front wheels if you are being cheap.

A comment I heard on a talk radio show that I really agree with. There should be two driving tests for your license. One in the summer and one for winter driving. I would like to see it one step further at a mandatory retest every 5 years. Why? Because people forget and grow bad habits. They say that the young people are the dangerous drivers. Ya they are but I think it's only because they haven't had the driving experience yet to learn how not to get caught!!! I swear I see more boneheaded things done by people that have been driving for 20 years. It's funny but I think it's the older generation that uses their turn signals less than the new driver. Why, Hmmm maybe they are an option in some new cars?? Maybe they forgot they were there? I'm not sure but I wish more used them.

Hey I'll be the first to admit that I'm an aggressive driver. I like speed and have had my fair share of tickets. I also drive 80,000 km a year. Ya, I drive that much with work and some play mixed in. For the miles versus tickets ratio it's actually pretty low. So where am I going with this. Not really sure but just wanted to get it off my chest. I think it's because I have a 6 hour drive coming up in a couple days as I head over to my sister's in Ottawa for Christmas. I'm crossing my fingers for a smooth trip.

That's it for now maybe some biking stuff tomorrow.

Later