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I had me a moment driving today.

Driving, you ask? Aren't you the guy that owns two cars but can't drive either of them because the insurance prevents you from driving the Golf, but the S is stuck in the States?

Well, yes. I was driving Cankle's Yaris.

And while I always ascertain that normal cars can navigate winters on all-seasons as long as one drives like it's winter, I sometimes forget to follow my own advice.

So there we were, late for lunch with a group of friends, and I'm on the HOV lane of the highway. That's what we call the carpool lane here. High Occupancy Vehicle. I don't really know what that means, because you can drive a van that seats 10, but if only two people are in the car, you're okay. Doesn't make sense to me - since 1 person on a motorcycle does not meet that requirement, even if the bike is operating at a 50% occupancy capacity. Anyway.

While all the lanes are pretty well plowed, the HOV hadn't been. Or it had, but it wasn't salted. Or it was salted, but not recently.

What I'm trying to get at was that the HOV had slush, and we had just passed the salt truck that was seeding its load for the HOV.

I knew it was a bad idea to be on it when we made the bend in the road. I could feel the car lose traction and drift outwards, wanting to oversteer. But it wasn't severe, and in less time it takes than to check for spelling of this blog post, I was back on track.

I wanted to exit, and I wanted to slow down, but the HOV lane has designated entry and exit points, and signs are posted stating to never cross the double-lines between HOV and regular highways.

So I stay on course, with another car behind me breathing down my neck. I'm doing a lowly 80kph, so I'm not going fast at all - 20 kph under the posted highway speed limits.

When I finally got some straight roads, I decide to accelerate quicker and exit the HOV. The Yaris had other ideas, and instead of following what I wanted it to do via the steering wheel, ol' Yaris boy began to slide to the left.

I looked over at the median, and it just felt like I was going to hit it. I can imagine Ol' Boy spinning 180 into the cement blocks.

I try to relax, and begin to let my foot off the gas while I attempt to make small steering inputs into the wheel to keep it pointing straight. But the car has found trails of slush to get stuck into, and I can't keep her even. I dare not break, and I dare not chop off the throttle.

Within the several seconds of fighting, the car seems to straighten out, but then without warning, it yanks me to the right. I'm going to crash.

Luckily, I check my blindspot really quickly, and notice there's no car beside me, so I signal out and as the car drifts further to the right, I slide the car to the other lane. The tires gripped, and I was able to continue without much drama after that.

But trust me, it was scarier than what I typed. I really think that if I was stupid enough to tap the brakes, or started overcompensated with the wheel, I'd be typing this post with a different outcome and whiplash.

....But thank goodness nothing happened. posted by losir at 3:53 PM