Rain, rain, rain, rain

Rain does funny things to people. Besides making them wet and notoriously late for everything, I mean. Here in the south it seems to mainly affect one's ability to drive in a normal, rational, and focused manner. I don't know what exactly people think when they realize it's raining and oh-my-god I am in my car, but I'm guessing it's either, "Oh dear Jesus and all the saints in heaven it's raining and that is so scaaaaaary, oh Sweet Jesus", or "What the !@#$^, where the !@#% is all this rain coming from? It's messing up my wax. Well, !@#$^, I better get the !@#$% where I need to be". In short, when in rains in Georgia, we have two kinds of drivers; the kind that slows down to at least twenty miles under the speed limit, or the kind that drives at least twenty miles over. Oh, and a third category that always forgets to turn their lights on. Honestly, I'm not sure what they're thinking, so I'm not even going to try, but I have the feeling these are the same people who don't use blinkers, pull out in front you doing 15mph, and have a phone glued to their ear every moment they're in their car.

Now it's raining today. Not anything terrible like a torrential downpour complete with thunder, lightening, and tornadoes, no, it's just a light to medium sprinkle, the kind that can last up to three weeks straight in Holland. But apparently that doesn't matter, because driving to work was fraught with numerous opportunities for serious accidents. I've had people stopped under overpasses on the interstate when the rain increased to a steady, but light, drip-drip-drip, people doing a comfortable 35mph on the interstate, people swerving into a ditch every time a semi approached, and people deciding that rain=drive faster!

Since I'm feeling slightly magnanimous today, though, I'm going to cut these poor Georgia drivers some slack. You see, the roads in this state are pretty terrible, and so even the slightest drop of rain can lead to possibly hazardous conditions. If you're an attentive, cautious driver, you will do fine, but I think we can firmly establish that most local drivers (the ones who can't take turns without ending up on the other side of the road) do not fall into that category. Not only do we not have the awesome water-absorbing blacktop that they use in most of Europe, here in Georgia, the interstate is constructed using large concrete slabs, the kind that make your car go "ka-dunk" every time you hit a seam between two of these babies. And guess where water likes to sit and rest when it rains? Right, in those seams. So this means that any minute amount of rain is going to cause lots of spray and the possibility of hydroplaning. And when you learned how to drive in your daddy's fully loaded SUV with automatic transmission on your granddaddy's farmland, spray and hydroplaning are simply not part of your driving vocabulary.

Interestingly, our county does have both the nifty water-absorbing asphalt and the smooth blacktop, although that doesn't stop people from driving like wet rags anyway. But whenever you venture out of the county, you can tell where the county line is based on the loud "ka-dunk!" and the sudden exponential increase in wetness. Now although I realize that our surrounding counties do not have the income that comes with having a base right smack in the middle of it, and that some of them struggle with their budgets so much that the school week was reduced to four days, I still can't help but gripe and complain whenever a passing sixteen-wheeler rains the Georgia version of the Niagara falls down on to my car.

So, yes, driving in the rain in Georgia is a pain. Fortunately, they've predicted sunshine for the rest of the week. Thank heavens for small favors.