I agreed months ago to drive friends to the airport on today's date. It is better to be driven there than to leave your car there, outside, in increasingly severe cold until you come back in late spring. Just the way things work out sometimes - today we had the first actual snowfall of the season. Maybe 2 inches but it came down in a steady stream and made the roads slippery.
The airport they needed is a bit more than an hour away. The roads to it are well-designed and have steady traffic, which means the right lane is often pretty well used. Today's temperatures and humidity levels made 50 miles an hour an acceptably safe speed but making a turn required slowing and staying conscious of slippage. Sliding means immediately letting go of any acceleration and careful, steady steering.
In reading "From Gutenberg to Google", I learned that people were doubtful about the newfangled railroad back in the early 1800's. They had heard that the thing sometimes traveled at speeds approaching 25 miles an hour. Some thought that such speeds might do permanent damage to the human brain, which had never traveled at such speeds, anywhere! Today, I had plenty of chances to travel at 50 in stretches of road that are posted for 65. I did see some vehicles that were off the road and none of them had an out-of-state license. I got there and back with no problem and by the return trip, the weather was warmer. The usage and the warmth had cleared the road quite a bit by there.
