Dear California license plate driver from last night,Welcome to Minnesota!
I feel for you; really, I do. It must be a horrible shock coming from daily temperatures of 80 degrees to the 'feels like 18 below with the wind chill' temperatures of current.
Here's a few tips to make your winter driving with us a little better:
1. First and foremost, you will not die. Many, many people have survived Minnesota's winters. (Only rarely do people die).
2. I'm pretty certain if you made it with a car in California, you are not foreign to concept; your brake and gas pedals are in the same place as always. Use them accordingly.
3. Cold temperatures are not equivalent to: blizzards, freezing ice, blowing snow; meaning you may not find it necessary to drive slower than a 88 year old woman taking the cross walk all. winter. long.
4. You will need this thing called an 'ice scraper', preferably one with a brush and a very long handle.
5. Using said ice scraper, you may use a technique called tank vision to clear off your windshield, but this technique will only work if you remember to scrape off your rear view mirrors and are OK with rolling down your windows.
6. We may be some of the nicest drivers in the country, but come February... let's just say I suggest, if you are calling this place home, getting new Minnesota plates ASAP.
Sincerely,
Anti-Supermom
* feel free to add to the list, obviously this will be valid for the next 4 months or so.
27 comments:
Dear California driver:
Should you have the opportunity to travel south to Iowa,please take this list, change the word "Minnesota" to "Iowa" in all instances it appears.
FYI. Please make sure to clear off your entire vehicle of snow, including turn signals, rear windows, brake lights, and headlights. I would hate to run you over with my F-150 pickup.
I hope all drivers heed your warning! When we get snow here everyone freaks out. Not quite as bad as it would be if it snowed in California...but somehow our drivers forget their winter driving skills too!
Dear out of towner,
It's only wind, and no where as strong as it could be in, oh say a hurricane. You will not get blown off the road. And the floating things...they're flurries. It's not a blizzard!
There is no reason for you to drive so slow you're almost going backwards!
Oh this made me giggle a little. HAHA! Great post!
Lol!
Dear California drives IN California: I know we have sun almost every day of the year and that wet stuff falling from the sky is a bit of a mystery... but seriously 45 on the highway when it is raining is not okay.
My plates my say California--but I grew up in Illinois--bring on the wet stuff, the snow, the black ice--I can handle it. But the rest of you well obviously not. Guess I am had better adapt to the Southern California lifestyle.
Every year it seems like it takes several storms for people to learn how to maneuver the roads!
Thanks for the advice. I'll have to keep it all in mind should I ever have to break my personal rule to never drive in snow. I found the advice of clearing off the lights especially useful... it would not have occurd to me to do so. My request to anyone driving in the pea soup we refer to do as dense fog to remember to turn on your lights for the same reason... they may not help you to see, but they help you to BE seen.
I remember doing an exercise at work once about workplace conflict and why someone wanted to have a parking space near the building even when it wasn't assigned to them. The class was giving out all kind of answers and my response was "maybe that is the only place with a plug-in?". People from warm(er) climents just don't get what it is like to live and drive in the cold. I do. I grew up in Manitoba. You know, just head north.
Oh yeah, and stock up on wind shield wiper fluid...unless you feel like driving with your head OUT the window (motorcycle style).
Dear California Driver:
Just because you have an expensive 4 wheel drive Hummer, does not mean you have a 4 wheel STOP Hummer. Please adjust your driving to compensate, much as you've compensated for your "size"
I live in California and I think I'm gonna stay here!
You must have seen my husband driving because Im pretty sure we are the ONLY people in MN with a CA license plate. Although no need to worry he has lived in MN for 4+ years and lived in Utah and Idaho for even longer where they get twice as much snow. and yes we refuse to change our plates and come to the reality that we really live in MN and arent just visiting. thankfully we are students and dont have to change our plates by law. I will however pass on all your great advice to our family when they come visit because they DO NOT know how to drive in anything but the sunny dry weather that we know nothing about in MN:)
Funny! Visiting from SITs
Haha! This brings back the memory of the time when San Antonio got a sprinkling of snow on year.
They literally shut down the entire city--highways, interstates. Everything. I was so mad bc I wanted IHOP.
And I was laughing hysterically at everyone freaking out {I grew up in Missouri so I was used to snow/ice/etc}.
Thanks for the laugh :)
Oh--tell them to scrape the snow/ice off the TOP of their car so enormous deadly weapons of ice chunks don't cause an accident or break a window :)
Love this.
I saw someone with a Florida plate and thought the same things.
can i just say how much i love your use of periods in number three.
thank you.
Ha! Being from the DESERT of southen California, I can say we are very spoiled and whiny when it comes to weather. Can you blame us? we only have 2 seasons, Summer, and 'slightly colder' fall. Since I live in the desert, I have more temp extremes than most other Californians but I am convinced I WILL DIE when the temp drops below 35 (which in the desert, it does). HOwever, should you happen to be in my neck of the 'woods' come summer, I will gladly offer a rebuddle for surviving the average temp of 115 with a view 120s and 125s thrown in just for fun! ;0)
I would need a more detailed list on how to survive your winters. While I own a ice scraper, I'm not sure where it is.
I tagged you in my meme today!
I would need a more detailed list on how to survive your winters. While I own a ice scraper, I'm not sure where it is.
I tagged you in my meme today!
How about.
Dear Cali driver.
If you suck at driving, just stay off the roads, ok?
We who are used to horrifically bad winters don't appreciate your driving like a snail in blizzards and in sleet.
Thank you. ASM and HAD/RAD
Minnesotans and New Englanders
I crack myself up. Honey you have to do oneliners w/me on twitter at 4am... I outdo myself w/my peeps. I am serious! I hate IMing, it is a PITA but love the onelining on Twitter. Who KNEW!
LOL this is awesome. And being that I am from California I completely agree. They can't even drive in the rain..correction...sprinkling rain. Everyone needs to stay of the roads around her but me..haha Thanks for stopping by on my SITS day it is so nice to meet you. Have a wonderful holiday season :)
You are a riot-I see out of state plates and I just think 'man I need to get around them because I bet they are lost ;) '
Dear People Who Now Live in California, But Who Came Here From "Out There" (this especially applies to Nevad-A-Holes and people who moved to forget about inclement weather... guess what, it happens here, too):
You are giving a bad name to those of us natives who appreciate the fact that we can be in the water at the beach one day and up in the snowy mountains the next (or the same day, depending on where we live).
Just because our newscasts start every winter and spring with "Storm Watch 200X" doesn't mean you have to come to a screeching halt two miles behind the driver in front of you.
And guess what... driving down a mountain pass with your hazard lights on is NOT necessary. Fog is not an emergency. Not even if it's snowing.
Thank you.
It snowed in Houston last weekend when I was there. They closed down freeways. The airports were delayed. It was horrible.
If you aren't sure you can make it..stay home!
LOL!! I love to see the drivers who have never driven in snow...makes me just want to plow them all down with the man's hummer!!
~WM
I think that is my friend's plate.
We live in Illinois and the first snow, if you can call it that-it didn't even stick, there were like umpteen accidents! I want to say, "People, it's like this every year! Do you forget what it's like to drive in snow after just 8 months??" Crazy stuff!
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