Friday, September 29, 2006

Trials and Tribulations

Spring brings many wonderful new things to Minnesota. Flowers, cuddly baby animals, mosquitoe bites and the occasional multi-car pile up. I bring up the multi-car pile up because of the one fact that; the first spring rain leaves an oil slicked road that tends to act more like a skating rink than a major highway.

It is instinct now that Minnesotans slow down for this initial spring rain because they know the cars will be like three year olds on ice skates. These are trials and tribulations that we must endure as Minnesotans. Most of us figure it out, some sooner than others, traffic starts to flow and the next time it rains it is business as usual.

It is now September and many rainstorms have come and gone. Umbrellas have been stowed away as the arrival of cold air and the possibilty of snow loom on the horizon. Does that mean there will be no more rain? No? You sure? Of course there will be. Some drivers in MN tend to forget this when it has not rained for two weeks in the middle of September. They are sure the next thing they will experience is three feet of snow and rain is pushed solidly from their thoughts.

Driving home from work three nights ago, I experienced this forgetfulness during a rainstorm in Lakeville. I have driven through southern Georgia where blinding rains make you pull over to the side of the road. You have no choice. It is as if someone drops a piece of butcher paper on your windshield and makes you drive 60 MPH.

Oddly though, this was not the case on my way home. It was a moderate rain and hard at times but nothing that would cause the circus act under the bridge that I saw. People were pulled over trying to get under the bridge. The pulled over at angles so that the two lane highway turned into one lane and that lane was available if you straddled the dashed lines.

I continued past wondering what I was missing. I started to panic. What if they saw something I didn't? Maybe J-Lo was signing autographs under the bridge. I started frantically looking out my windows. Nothing. Leaves...but it is Autumn. Rain...obviously. Clouds...again, obviously. That was it. No hail, tornadoes or special appearances by J-Lo.

I continued driving and within a 1/2 mile of the bridge I was out into blue skies and speedily on my way home. I will never understand this UBP (under bridge phenomonen). It escapes me because you can only ever fit one, maybe two, cars under a bridge.

Some would call this human nature. To panic and risk life and limb to save your car. I call it Minnesotan nature but most of the time I call it weird.