adversity

Whenever it snows, I get the incurable urge to go driving around on the roads. I'm not sure why - something to prove maybe - or just because it's a challenge that's kinda fun. Driving in the snow in our new 4WD made me especially eager this morning. When I was on the road, I observed a few things:

-people in Victoria don't know how to drive in the snow. This is well documented so I won't elaborate much but people - seriously - flooring the gas when you have no traction means nothing. You make ice under your tires if you're stopped and if you're moving, it means you'll lose control.

-a note to pedestrians - if you see a car spinning its tires, get the $%^$#$ out of the way! Don't stand there with a smile on your face looking up the hill to check it out. I saw at least two pedestrians stop dead in their tracks while checking out the spinning out car.

-shopping. Best day to shop by far, was today. I was actually walked around Walmart by two employees to help me find my stuff. When I was done, I had 5 empty cashiers willing to serve me. Snow at Christmas time = lots of employees, no shoppers.

What was kinda cool though was that I noticed how much friendlier people are when there's snow outside. Logic says we should be grumpier - we travel even slower than our usual road raging selves and there's no rhyme or reason to traffic patterns and the roads are not clearly marked AT ALL. On a sunny day, if any of those things happened, we'd be fuming. But on snowy days, we're okay with it. Not only that, people stop to help others. Most people stop if there's a car on the side of the road or stuck somewhere. People will lend shovels or lend a hand where needed.

I remember the big snowfall of 96. People in Victoria will forever remember and talk about that. It's as big of an event as Victoria will ever have. I had lived in the same house for 14 years and hardly knew my neighbors. But after that big snowfall, I'd met most of them - been invited for drinks and shared a laugh. And because of losing power for that full day and a bit, my family had to learn to play board games and talk again.

So it kinda makes me wonder. Why would any of us want sunny days?