Four-door Florida: Battling the Cleveland sludge

The word “sludgy” best describes the weather on the days when the first white droppings of any winter in Cleveland arrive. It’s usually not snowy, because the temperature on these days tend to teeter-totter around 34 degrees and alternately freezes and thaws the falling rains. It’s just grossly icy and hail-y…leaving gray-white slop all over the landscape.

Roads are atrocious when it is sludgy. A thin layer of ice masquerading as rainwater blankets the roads sending unsuspecting and overconfident drivers into slip sliding spin outs. Stopping smoothly is nearly impossible, and even driving in a straight line is difficult.

This morning was definitely sludgy. On my drive to work, I saw a man in a mid-90’s Cadillac begin to fish-tail wildly. He was driving along down the highway when his back end suddenly jetted out to one side. A semi-truck in the next lane clipped his back end and sent him spinning off like a cyclone into the highway divider after his car did four complete revolutions. Luckily, the driver exited the car unscathed, and the damage to the car was surprisingly minimal.

I am anxious to see how my new car handles the Cleveland winter. One HUGE upgrade over my previous car is the automatic starter that I have on my key chain. I now can start my car from the comforts of my room by simple pressing a button. I can then get dressed, brush my teeth, and when I get into the car, I will be sitting in 75 degrees of blasting heat – like a four-door Florida.

Take that, sludge.