I like weather

I wanted to be would have been very happy being a meteorologist, though I was unable to connect that desire with anything resembling a work ethic during college, so I never pursued it. I also just like being out in weather. Aside from under 40 degrees/raining/windy I enjoy being out in it. I took a long walk last night and came back completely snow-covered and content.

This morning, I had to rent an SUV for the weekend. There's a rental car place about 1/4 mile from my house, so I was all ready to head over there when Vlad, the rental car guy, called me to tell me that all he had was a small SUV with no roof rack. We decided I'd go look at it and decide, so I walked over. It seemed like a very nice car, but too small for what I needed, so Vlad, who is very friendly and helpful, called first the airport and then the downtown locations to see if they had a bigger one I could swap it for. Downtown had something, so off I went into the snow. In the 10 minutes or so I was on the expressway, I saw fewer than 10 cars total.

The roadway wasn't clear, but I spent my formative driving years in upstate New York and am very comfortable driving in the snow. The objective of driving in the snow is the same as any other time- get from where you are to where you want to be without bumping into anything. In the snow that can be more difficult because you can't count on being able to either turn or brake, so the main rule is to stay as far away from the other cars as possible, because they probably have no idea what they're doing, most people around here don't, and they can't stop or turn either. You need to drive at a speed where you can stop, even if stopping means skidding and doing a 180. And you should know how your car handles in the snow, which of course I didn't.

Once in Center City, I had to deal with there being several inches of snow in the street, but I made it to the place. The guy working there, John, was completely humorless. How can you be out working at a rental car place in a blizzard and be humorless? The whole thing is inherently funny, renting things that pretty much don't work in the current conditions. The guy behind me was renting a Ford Focus. I hope he wasn't planning on, well, driving it anywhere. And this place rents those teeny SmartCars too. What could be funnier than trying to drive one of those things in a foot of snow? It would be random motion.

He rents me the car, claiming to know nothing about it aside from the key number and tells me "It's in spot 17, but you can't see the number because of the snow." And off I go to search the unplowed lot. The car is brand new and bright red. Easy to find in the whiteness. It has 4 miles on it. I drive off and the moment I get on the expressway it beeps to tell me it's out of gas. Now I know perfectly well that the only way for a car with 4 miles on it to be out of gas is for it never to have had gas in it in the first place, a curious condition for a newly rented car to be in.

By the time I got back it was snowing much harder and the roads were pretty much covered, but I made it to the gas station and then home. And that was my first adventure of the day.