Friday, 28th of February, 2003
Yay for ABS. I was definitely going west on Forsyth in downtown Clayton today through a green light at an intersection (dangerous move, I tell you) and some person decided to make a blind left turn 15 feet in front of my line of travel (an SUV was blocking her view, but she turned without yielding like the traffic sign said to anyway) and... I was definitely ready to smack right into it, because if I had been driving the Cavalier, between the wet pavement and the short distance there was no way I could do anything but slow the impact. But I've been spending lots of time in slippery conditions in my Subaru and I knew I had ABS, and so I just stomped on it and landed on the horn, flicking the steering wheel to the left a little, so I can clear the back end of the car in the slight chance that she's going fast enough. Yay for directional stability while braking! Fortunately, the driver, whom I was sure was about to have to deal with her insurance company buying me a new front end on my Subaru, stomped on the brake in the middle of the intersection to a screeching halt. There's no way I can clear the back end of the car now. Try the front end! I quickly steer right as quickly as possible, computer pulsing that brake system the whole way, and I manage to zip by that front bumper of the car with a couple inches to spare. Definitely scary... a left flick then a right steer within 15 feet of wet pavement... something I don't want to encounter again except in an autocross! If I had bought a car without ABS, there would be none of that steering feedom - it would definitely be cadence braking until the crunch - just like last time in the Cavalier!
Sunday, 16th of February, 2003
More snow last night! This one's as slippery and massive as the one on Christmas Eve. As of this morning, the roads have essentially been untouched. Driving around St. Louis it seems Olivette was the first municipality to roll the snow plows - it was funny that Price Road was cleaner than I-170. In fact, I-64 seemed to be the last thing to be cleaned. But I sure enjoyed this one. It did result in the Wash U Symphony concert being canceled, however.
Sunday, 9th of February, 2003
 These are donuts.
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 | These are pendulum turns. |  |
Thursday, 6th of February, 2003
The power went out for the entire South 40 here at Wash U tonight. Apparently it all started with an electrical pole catching fire at Wydown and Big Bend, which happened at 18:15, and it caused traffic chaos for a while. But the power was out all night, and it was a rather interesting sight - the S40 completely dark except for 2 emergency lights - the parking garage was just a black hole, it was weird.
Saturday, 1st of February, 2003
Gotta give credit to the people at CNN for doing such a good job with breaking news - though sometimes in the rush interesting things happen. It's funny when you mistake Mach 18 for 18 times the speed of light.