The fog this morning is thick. As I drove in, visibility was about 50 feet. And, as if you needed more proof that Houston drivers suck, I shall relate the story of how I almost got in a wreck.
I was turning left out of my apartment complex. I stop. I’m going to turn left, so I look right, then left, then right again. I don’t see anything (within the 50 feet in either direction that I can see, anyway), so I slowly start to pull out.
As I’m pulling out, I look right again, and out of the fog comes a car going about 40 miles an hour on a small, residential, 25 mph speed limit street. He honks, and I slam on my brakes.
My fault thus far, I admit. Despite looking multiple times, I just didn’t see him.
However, it certainly doesn’t help that he is driving a silver car, in the thickest fog in months, with no headlights. He doesn’t have his headlights on.
At this point, I’m kicking myself for not seeing him, and relieved that we were both able to stop (wasn’t hard for me, since I was going about 5 mph). But what the guy does next is the kind of thing that really distinguishes some Houston drivers as complete idiots.
He stops his car in the middle of the road, rolls down his window, looks back at me (since he’s past me at this point), and throws his hands out the window at me. He may have shouted something; I’m not sure.
I also had my window rolled down (so I could see through the fog better before I turned, since the windows were all dewey), so in an unusual move for me, I actually shouted back at him. “Turn your headlights on in the fog!” Amazingly, I didn’t curse at him.
He sped off before I could see if he actually turned his headlights on.
Jerk.
It’s a good thing I have been listening to Christmas music in the car lately. It makes me happy, which keeps me from getting too stressed by that bad driver, or by the horrible, horrible Clear Lake traffic that made me late to last night’s Christmas Lights Run (thankfully the group lingered long enough that I made it), or the horrible, horrible Clear Lake traffic that made it a half hour drive from League City to La Madeleine last weekend.
I swear, Clear Lake traffic has gotten significantly worse in the past five years. I just don’t remember it being this bad during my co-op years. Of course, it doesn’t help that basically every major road down here is somehow under construction right now — 518, NASA Parkway, and the northbound I-45 feeder. That last one is under construction because they are inexplicably building a bypass, but not a useful bypass. Instead of taking people all the way through the area, it appears that when completed, it will dump traffic out right at the El Camino / NASA Parkway intersection — already one of the worst intersections in the area.
Sigh.
The Christmas Lights run was lots of fun. We did ~4.25 miles through the Tanglewood area, saw lots of houses that I will never be able to afford, saw lots of lights, and enjoyed the company of some bloggers and Striders. Jose came along and ran the whole way — the farthest he has run in years. We stuck with the “extremely casual” group and did ~13:00 miles. J has now declared this to be his happy pace, the pace at which he felt he could run forever and still be conversational. Hooray.
Becca says
The fog last night (at 1 a.m.) was really *weird*. It hadn’t descended to ground level yet, it was just a thick ceiling of smoke that covered the billboards and tops of street lights, while the visibility on the ground remained completely clear. It was *bizarre*.
Vic says
ahhh, the happy pace. Tell Jose that if he keeps running at that happy pace, it actually goes down. My happy pace in June was 15:30+.
Great to see y’all last night. Glad you made the arduous journey.
Cassie says
I will agree about tehtraffic in Clear Lake. When I lived there 4 years ago it wasn’t nearly as bad as it is now. I hate driving around down there for work! too many cars!
JohnnyTri says
Yeah the Fog totally Sucked this morning. The Tanglewood area is great for lights and houses!
Homer says
Mmmm…pea soup
Jen says
I almost got hit on site yesterday for the same reason. Why don’t people understand they have to SLOW DOWN in fog? And I bet about 10% of the cars I saw had no headlights on in the fog.