Apparently Mother Nature heard my repeated requests for winter like weather and has finally decided to act on them. It began snowing sometime late last night, the grass was green when I climbed into bed around midnight, and by this morning a light layer of white was covering all surfaces. It's not much but it's enough to cover all but the long blades of grass. As of this posting it is still lightly snowing as well.
It's too bad not everyone was quite ready for the snow this morning. I drive 50 miles to work each morning and it normally takes me a little over an hour to make the trip. Today was closer to two hours! The road was snow covered and a little slick on my way to the expressway but quickly turned to simply wet pavement upon entering US 23 south. I managed to get up to the normal winter speeds of 70-80mph until we neared the Highland area and M-59. That stretch of expressway is wide open and notorious for being icy most winter mornings so traffic speeds adjusted accordingly. Just as I thought I was back on schedule and would make it to work on time we came to a screeching halt, 1 mile north of the I-96 interchange. I was more than halfway to work mileage wise by this time yet it took another hour of sitting in traffic on roads that were simply wet salted pavement. Our top speed was somewhere around 35mph, and that was only the last 5 miles of the trip!
It happens every year, my fellow commuters seem to forget that just because the ground is white, and there may be flakes falling, it does not mean we can't drive at somewhat normal speeds on the wet salted pavement of the expressways in Oakland county. With any luck this mornings commute served as their reminder and the rest of the winter will result in normal driving speeds; except for the days when Oakland County forgets to spread salt or plow the roads before rush hour(s).
I can dream right?
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