Jan 15 2007
Weather + Commute = suck
I haven’t even finished work yet, and I’m dreading this.
[After-action note: My drive home was approximately three hours plus this morning. I knew it’d be bad, I spent the night driving around in this muck. I finished my 13 1/4 hour night shift, then grabbed a cup of coffee on the way out of the office and braced myself for an extended drive home.
What kept popping into my mind the entire drive was that my insurance company had just the other day told me I was a “nine star driver”, which is allegedly a good thing, and as such I qualified for their “forgive and forget plan”. A plan whereby my first “at fault” accident does not affect my insurance rates.
Three hours spent thinking “Wouldn’t it be funny if I used that part of my insurance a mere 48 hours after adding it?”]
Yeah, us too…
[rain]
Today
Rain and light freezing rain. Breezy. Ice accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. Highs in the lower 30s. Temperature steady or slowly falling in the afternoon. North winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 100 percent.
[nt_snow]
Tonight
Cloudy. Chance of freezing rain…snow and light sleet. Ice accumulation around one quarter of an inch. Lows in the upper 20s. North winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 50 percent.
[snow]
Tuesday
Cloudy with snow and light sleet likely. Ice accumulation around one quarter of an inch. Highs in the lower 30s. North winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent.
N
Wow, sure makes me want to move back to ol’ Ontario (or NOT). I’ll just stay here and whine about the bitter Vancouver cold and the snow we’re supposed to get tonight.
My condolences on the sleet. The thought of trying to drive in that makes my tender bits want to crawl up inside me. Guess that shows how spoiled I’ve become.
Dude, fur traders in the Hudsons Bay Company didn’t commute as far to work as you do!
Yup … a right mess. 500 traffic accidents in the GTA yesterday … http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/01/15/ont-storm.html
Relieved you made it home without incident. It looks like winter has finally arrived, and with a vengeance … snow for the rest of this week.
Looks like the Texans have also had a taste of winter … but those balmy breezes are scheduled to return by mid-week.
Nikki: Blech… heard about Texas on the news, and of course read about it on Piets blog. Doesn’t quite fit with my mental picture of Texas, but the weathers been so screwed recently it’s not that big a shock I s’pose.
CM: Actually we’ve been WELL overdue, the weather (based on the weather channel) has overall been much better here than in Vancouver, and this is the first real snow of any significance we’ve had, certainly the freezing rain made things a little more ichy.
Ya know, I’m never really worried about ME driving in this mess, as arrogant as it sounds I AM a good driver, and I think I’ve a pretty good feel for the capabilities of my car (work or personal) and rarely push it, I’m never in that much of a hurry.
What ALWAYS concerns me is the other drivers, and this is what made my drive so nerve racking. Two spinouts witnessed directly in front of me (seperate incidents), one into the shoulder on the 401 West after work, and one 360 on the 401 East as I was finishing my shift. Both carelessness on the drivers parts (Hell the 360 the tires were still throwing up snow 180 into the turn, no sign of brakes lights, the driver seemed to just hold the wheel over and floor it).
-sigh-
Hopefully I’ll have a local job soon. There’s a good prospect I’ll be working on this week.
Greg: Ah c’mon now. You’ve driven from Surrey to North Van, no? It’s not THAT FAR. It sure as shit ain’t local, but it’s not quite as bad as Squamish to Vancouver, and lord knows the highway is certainly better maintained during storms.
Dad: Yeah, slow and steady wins the race in this sort of driving. More people would be well served to keep that in mind.
As for the Texas winter, I was hoping Piet was going to put pics online. Darn!
[…] “As for the Texas winter, I was hoping Piet was going to put pics online. Darn!” […]
You’ve driven from Surrey to North Van, no?
Actually, my longest sustained commute was from almost West Van…think 6 pillars of evil…to Langley, right down on the border. I worked it out and Squamish was actually closer.
Now that I think about it, I also used to commute from Abbotsford to the Agency.
I hate commuting! Thank Zod I’m now a college student!
If commuting to Gateway in Surrey from 33rd. & Main wasn’t bad enough, starting the 27th. of this month, I’ll have to start commuting from 33rd. & Main out to the Surrey Transit Center at 132nd. St. & 76th. Ave. in Surrey bouncing my mileage up from 27kms one way to 39kms.
I know that’s not as bad as Muggy’s commute but I have to cross water. So much for my former 15 minute commute to Brokeback Casino! *GRIN*
I know that’s not as bad as Muggy’s commute but I have to cross water. So much for my former 15 minute commute to Brokeback Casino!
Dude, it wouldn’t matter if you had to cross molten magma and pools of sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads, Muggy still has the worse commute: He ends up in Toronto. There isn’t much worse than that.
–GRIN–
My biggest concern is always the other drivers. I don’t rush, and respect the laws of physics. Still hate it, probably more because it represents cold weather than anything else.
Feel free to use me as a reference for your possible new job. Good luck on being closer to home.
Well suck it up I drive for 8 hours in that crap. it’s not as bad as you think…ok it is but I still have to drive for 8 hours in it
Eight hours? Oh dear, I think you’re missing the point here.
I drive approximately 16 hours a day (12 hour shift driving, plus a 2 hour commute either way), give or take depending on volume delays.
The soapbox has been vacated, next!