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Winter Driving

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By Justin
Well the snow was a bit of a surprise to wake up to this morning. So that means that I was able to shovel snow for the first time this fall/winter. Now that we live in an apartment complex (4plex) it's quite different. The only thing to really shovel are the stairs. Shoveling a driveway is a lot more fun than stairs. There are some sidewalks that I could shovel though. I'll probably end up doing that.



With the snow comes a different type of driving. I enjoy driving in the snow usually. Was able to test out our Jeep to see how well the AWD works.
One thing that I tend to do is drive with my tires hitting as much of the slush between lanes as I can. I figure I can handle it more than others - especially the small sedans that are low to the ground. So I drive through it so they don't have to. And of course it splashes everywhere - which turns me into a laughing fool.
I'm always curious what others think when I do that (or when I'm laughing because of it.) I looked in my rear view mirror and to my surprise another Jeep started following my lead. We offset each other a little to make wider paths for others. He followed me for a couple of blocks before I pulled back into my parking lot. He gets it!

Now, understand that I'm not some nutjob that thinks Jeeps are the indestructible protectors of the roads or something. I think it's just my "Minnesota Nice" kicking in. It's a real thing! That's the phrase for the personalities of many of the people from the Midwest.
The cultural characteristics of Minnesota nice include a polite friendliness, an aversion to confrontation, a tendency toward understatement, a disinclination to make a fuss or stand out, emotional restraint, and self-deprecation. It can also refer to traffic behavior, such as slowing down to allow another driver to enter a lane in front of the other person.
Turns out that I do most of those things! A buddy of mine was doing research on some potential clients that I introduced him to when he came across that description.  I can hardly say anything without him pointing out my Minnesota Nice tendencies now. haha.




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Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 26, 2012 at 9:38 AM

    Glad it was you who received snow and not us. :) It was almost 70 on Wednesday here, though yesterday made up for that. Also - who's the weirdo that loves to shovel, you'd think you grew up in Wisconsin. Didn't know how to get it to say my name, I probably have to set something up. - Donya

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JustinNovember 19, 2012 at 11:14 PM

      All you have to do is login to your Google account.

      Delete

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