6km... just 6km.

The plows don't hit the major roads here until there is 100mm of snow down and it started at 4PM after raining all day. The temp dropped fast and the initial accumulation was slow so there was no way to stop the buildup of ice-like-sheet packed snow on accounta ya don't put salt down in a storm.

So, after close to a foot of that white crap fell and was cleared, the salt trucks hit the major roads. Well, salt ain't gonna do any good at -fuckit'scold degrees in the dark hours. Ya gotta get traffic on it to work the salt in and not much goes on round here on a Sunday until the stores open at 10AM.

At noon, I drove about 6km round trip one of the busiest roads in town. I drove at 30 to 40kph, depending on traffic and what I could see on the road... the odd bare stretch and mostly slippery stuff. At 500m, the guy behind me decides that's two slow and changes lanes to get around me. Not just one lane. Two and a half lanes. That's where his ass end and the pickup truck's front end met.

At 1.5km, buddy is trying to turn left in a front wheel drive car. He accelerated okay for about 1.5m whereupon he lost traction on the slippery stuff between the lanes. The idiot in the 4X4 coming the other way was driving too fast and slammed on his breaks and I didn't look back. Didn't have to... I heard it.

At almost 3km, buddy that is about to come onto the major road doesn't, even though his light has turned green, on accounta he knew that the idiot driving too fast on the major road wasn't gonna get stopped... when he did get stopped he decided it was better to keep going than block the guy with the green light.

300m from my street, I was making a right hand turn from a parking lot. Big Dodge 4X4 was going too fast to make the parking lot entrance. He was on slush on top of frozen snow and ice. But he started to turn and put on his brakes. Now, ABS are good if ya know how ta use em. But, all I could see was the fuckin Ram on the hood at about shoulder level to ME comin straight for my left wheel. He took his foot off the brakes, turned the wheel, nailed the gas and managed to swing the arse end enough to just clear my front end. Of course, then he was in a skid and those 20" rear tires were throwin snow. Thank goodness there was no opposing traffin on accounta that big Dodge pushed a little car in the inside lane into the opposing laneS broadside.

I am home for the rest of the day.

How can they drive in this part of the world and not know that slush, snow and ice are slippery?