Cyberstuck

spun up his RPMs very very fast. Because he was panicked…and a bad driver.

I was in Calgary in 94, and in one winter at the intersection of MacLeod and 71 Ave S . I was turning left. It's hard to see, but there's just the smallest of slopes there.

I'd driven a bit in the rockies in snow, by then; not as work, but for work like as a commute, sure. I wasn't a noob but it was a year or so before I successfully moose-checked a 91 firefly coming west outta banff with an actual moose in an actual blizzard and remarkably no one died, so I was still a little virginal.

And it was a bad day. It was Calgary, it was university days, it was three jobs and full-time comp-sci courses and a bad living arrangement with some really worthless family members, etc. Just, bad all 'round. And I was at the red. It went green. I sloooowwwwwly gave this piece of shit monte carlo some gas and the rear tires spun.

And at that point I kinda slipped out of the groove a bit. I didn't let up on the gas. I kept it there, the entire green-yellow-red cycle, just spinning and maybe crying a little at the futility of existence in Alberta at all, let alone in the dirty grey urban winter hellscape it is with all the really ignorant people around me, and *why the fuck was I even here in this place where places you have to go require a shitty car anyway and can I just maybe leave right now and aaaaaaaahh..." and, yeah.

And the light turned green. And I remembered my training on a beetle in the snow, and I let off the gas a bit and even the wheels on this candy-ass front-engine floaty-ass-end shitty goddamned whaler of a car with no justification for even existence caught in the warm trough I made, and I started moving forward ever so slowly, and I crested the center and I made my turn and I continued on home after using the entire green to just cross the intersection, cursing and grinding my teeth and wiping my tears a bit amid the congratulatory honking of my fans.

The thing is, we all lose our shit a bit, now and then, and just slip out of the tire ruts marked in the packed snow by the cars in front of you, and maybe we spin out a bit. The guy sitting in the front of the shitty car or amazon truck as it spins and he rages and maybe cries a little may be on an atypical day. Account for that in the calculations.

Very good advice. In a pinch, wedging your car mats in front of your drive tires will also usually work. Saved me a couple of times. Could ruin the mats though.