slip-sliding away

This morning's drive from my apartment to work was unsafe as hell. No one in my sleepy little town had started plowing and salting the snow- and slush-covered roads at 8AM. Although I'd left twenty minutes earlier than usual, I was still ten or so minutes late for work. Right now, I'm rather pissed off at my town for being asleep at the switch: the four-mile stretch from my apartment to Route 66 could have been a lot safer. I nearly wiped out several times, and discovered to my chagrin that my poor little Honda Fit is no good at fighting its way uphill when the roads are as bad as they were this morning.

Route 66 itself was in poor shape when I finally got to it: I normally do 80mph along the freeway, but today I spent most of my time crawling along at about 45mph. Matters improved as I drove eastward; from Alexandria to Manassas to Gainesville, there was only rain-- the snow arrived in those parts later in the day.

The drive home was better than I thought it would be; the salt trucks and plows must have been out in force. I'm still wondering, though, why the local plowing/salting service was so delinquent this morning. Last winter, the roads were very well maintained.

Lesson learned: when the weather's bad, leave for work an hour early.


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