Winter: Not a Driver's Favorite Season

It's that time. Winter Time.

For us drivers, it might possibly mean waking up fifteen minutes early to heat up our cars in hopes of obliterating the inches of frost on the windshield and wind and getting the fannywarmers (as my mom would call them) nice and toasty for our cold butts to defrost upon.

 Or, for the rest of us, it means waking up normal time and freezing our butt off trying to see out of an opaque white windshield.

Either way, we're all cold and this. weather. needs. to. go.

Pulling in this morning I hit a tiny, tiny patch of black ice that made my front tire just jolt very slightly. But that black ice can be very deceiving. Last winter, I was innocently going around a curve and hit a patch of black ice only just to end up flying into some very firm bushes that left quite a large dent in the side of my Jeep. Right when I hit the ice, I knew I was doomed to hit those bushes. I feel that in those situations, one feels completely out of control, and is unable to prevent the wreck. Unfortunately, I had to pay for half of it.

Another aspect of this season: Holiday spirit. I have yet to recognize any friendly holiday cheer on the roads, except for the reindeer antlers stuck tucked into windows and bows on the front grill of cars. Vehicles look so festive on the road, and certainly makes the driving experience more pleasurable, if not distracting.

What is something I absolutely detest the most? It has to be the holiday parking and shopping centers. Stats say that more and more people are buying online this year, but according to the lack of  parking spots, I don't think so. I had to unfortunately park alongside some of the small curbs to my mall visits, risking possible dents due to stressed-out shoppers.

So everyone - drive safe and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

TRAFFIC.

Yeah, that's right, the big bad T word. We all hate it. It hates us. It's a mutual relationship.

This morning especially, traffic was the worst. I arrived to school fifteen minutes late along with about twenty other upperclassman, and I'm usually the one fifteen minutes early.

Here on the good ol' eastern shore, we have a little special something called The Bay Bridge. The bridge is about 4.5 miles long and extends over the Chesapeake Bay. This morning especially, traffic was backed up twenty minutes, when usually it takes four minutes to cross over the structure.

What could possibly be worst than sitting in traffic?  In the rain. In the fog. And fifteen minutes late to school. Now usually there are multiple culprits of backed up cars and red brake lights. One of the most frequent is car accidents. This particular morning, there was white Jeep Cherokee that ran into one of the guard rails and had hopped onto the median strip - one of my worst fears when driving. It always seems as those those guard rails are a bit to close to the shoulder - also waiting to be run into.  I said a silent prayer for the driver in the smashed Jeep, hoping that the driver was ok.

My personal favorite culprit of traffic is weather. Because we live so close to the watershed, there are lots and lots of bridges. As previously stated, the Bay Bridge influences greatly by weather. In addition, the Severn River Bridge also is victim to weather. Traffic can be backed up for millleeeessss on Route 50 just because the people slow down right before they go over the bridge. It can be simply be drizzling very slightly, and still people still almost come to a complete halt before they cross the bridge, which is just completely unnecessary. It's just a bridge guys. Get over yourselves and cross it.

So there, that's my rant on traffic. Hope you have a wonderful, traffic-free day!