Unsolicited Advice: Snow

Today brought this winter's first real snow.  Most kids I know are beside themselves with joy and an overwhelming urge to make snow angels (without snow pants) and snowmen (without enough snow) and have snowball fights (without mittens.)

While you're reminding your kids how to dress for the season, I have some advice for you:

Brush off the whole car.

Seriously.  I don't care whether you're in the snow belt or the bible belt.  When you have more than a half inch of snow, your duty is to get it ALL off your car.  Not just the windows.

And, unlike my neighbor, NOT JUST THE WINDSHIELD.  (Yes, I was shouting.)  How does she even drive like that?

Snow belongs on the ground, unless it's falling clean from the sky.  No one wants snow from your car landing in their line of sight.

First, clear the roof of your vehicle, even if you're driving something huge.  If you bought a Hummer, you need to take care of it.  Remove the snow from the roof so swathes of it don't fly off your vehicle to blind your fellow motorists.  If you can't handle this, buy something smaller.

Then brush down the windows, all of them.  If your brush doesn't include a scraper, a credit card will work on ice in a pinch.

Lastly, brush the hood (for your own sake) and trunk (for those fellow motorists again.)

And, when you get on the road, don't pretend you've never done this before.  Driving in snow is no big deal (except that one time, with apologies to Matt Merges and Lynn Cowan.)