Let's help each other winter well

I have been down this road before: Why is it that after a snowstorm, some people make the effort to fully remove the snow from their cars, while others don't?

It's those that don't to whom this rant is directed.

Wintering in northern New England is hard work. It takes some effort to winter well.

There are constants you can expect. There are the snow storms and cold snaps, of course. They challenge your ability to move from Point A to Point B, be it on foot or in a car. There is also the challenge of finding harmony in the thermostat -- you don't want to feel uncomfortably cold in the house, but you don't want all that precious, expensive fuel burning away too quickly either. You hope the car will turn over on the coldest of mornings.

You can approach winter with a certain amount of dread, in which case you won't winter well. Or you can approach winter with acceptance and perhaps with even a bit of eagerness ... to ski, snowshoe, ice skate, whatever, to take advantage of winter. That's wintering well.

What upsets me about winter, however, are the people who don't take their winter responsibilities seriously enough. And I talk specifically here about the people who don't remove fresh snowfall fully from their vehicles, especially from the roofs of their vehicles.

It drives me crazy to see people driving along the road or highway, a blizzard literally blowing behind them as snow billows from their roofs. It drives me insane when I have to follow directly behind them, sometimes in a whiteout because of all the snow that is coming from their laziness.

If someone is going to take the time and effort to brush and scrape snow from the front and rear windows before they head out, why can't they take a few more minutes to make sure the hood, the roof and the trunk are also cleared?

Sometimes these folks get as far as the hood and trunk, but then ignore the roof.

It's a nuisance when it's just snow that's billowing into you. It becomes a hazard, however, when the snow becomes ice and that ice comes flying off into someone else's windshield.

I see that a lot from cars, I see it a lot on vans and SUVs, and I see it a lot on tractor trailers. After a recent storm, while driving on the interstate, I cowered as huge sheets of ice lifted off a semi's trailer and, fortunately, splintered on the pavement, not the windshield of a car.

As much as I'm wary of the tractor trailers, I can forgive them not getting up there to clean snow. I can't forgive cars, vans or SUVs.

Part of wintering well is helping make it less miserable for others.