Idiot/Maniac

Ever hear the saying: “Everyone going slower than you is an idiot, and everyone passing you is a maniac”? It a bit of amateur cultural anthropological wisdom I picked up somewhere and it's just stinky with truth.

Fri-Sat first real snow-winter precipitation of the season, winter storm advisory changed to warning. Much to the dismay of my snowboarding son it wasn’t the nice fluffy powder but a mix of rain, pre-formed slush and wet snow. Freezing conditions brought road travel to a minimum, it was snotty, yet necessity forced me out into it a few times -no big deal.

A little background: I consider myself an experienced driver, when it comes to low traction situations I have a generous portion of confidence. Thinking back, being a northeastern native son spanked by the snow belt has grown me into the winter driver par excellence.

A youth learning to drive a field car on greasy wet grass, taking out the car onto the frozen lake to do high-speed spins, towing (and being towed) via snowboard “water-skiing” late night sessions on back roads (we learned how to do “Rockfords” then). Even when I raced motocross I always did very well in the mud. As an adult a few years of riding in the “meat seat” (co-driver) in a rally car has given me a profound sense of high-speed drift. My own driving attempts with left foot braking; on the gas early-apex slides have been met with success. Add a little racecar school and a maze of local back roads and after a while, sliding is controllable, efficient and joyous. Works on gravel, on ice, and its always the best/easiest on hard packed snow.

My daughter commented while taking her to work, “Dad you’re so weird, everyone else freaks out when the cars slides, you think its fun and at try to do it”. –Yep, it’s true.Maybe it’s an inherent sense of physics or a coordination/athletic ability. Could be a bit of Gardner’s Bodily-Kinesthetic teamed with a personality with a propensity for risk-taking, all factors.

Not to say I’ve never stuffed it in a snowbank, …probably will again someday. That’s why one has a tow strap in the trunk. A pickup truck driving redneck will always stop if all he has to do is back up, you hook on, a quick yank, unhook, -he drives away with a wave, never leaving his seat.

Same trip to drop off my daughter, coming down the hill into Whitney Point on Rt. 26, we fly by an overly cautious ’01 Subaru AWD Forester. Catch myself wanting to say, “Idiot!” Almost fact he’s calling me a (insert expletive) Maniac!