I am not experienced or old enough of a driver to be considered an expert by any means, but I've made some winter road observations from watching other drivers out and about:
- If you step on the accelerator and you don't go anywhere, stepping harder rarely solves your problem.
- You cannot take sharp 90° turns at 30 mph and expect to have the same result that one might expect on a 85°, July day.
- Not being able to see the lines in parking lots is not an excuse for parking anywhere you want
- The windshield shouldn't be the only thing you scrape or brush of snow. Other parts of an automobile also collect fallen snow.
- Counter-steering should be a rarely needed driving talent, not a fun hobby.
- Sports cars belong in garages when there is any kind of frozen precipitation on the roads.
- The area between lanes also needs plowed, not just two tire paths in each lane.
- Parking lots could use salt and sand as well.
Des Moines surpassed New York, Chicago and Los Angeles combined for homicides over the last 48 hour period. We had 3, Chicago and New York each had 1. In all of 2003, DSM Police responded to 12 homicides; they've responded to 8 this month. So, what's the change? A combination of things, I think. Early in the month, I think people were going crazy from hearing all the political ads and were sick of hearing "I approved this message." Later in the month, they were tired of freezing there asses off. As of right now, the wind chill hasn't been over 0 since Monday. That's cold. All joking aside, it's horrible what has gone on in Des Moines over the last week. In case you don't know, there have been two double murders, a teen suicide (who was one of the double murderers), an act of fratricide, plus a high-speed chase that wound up with a dead driver. In four completely unrelated incidents, 6 people have died violent deaths in the last few days in and around Des Moines. That's some frightening crap.
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