Your last comment about being calm during an incident like that is what I think makes a good driver. I take that back. Being calm and correctly predicting what the idiot driving next to you is going to do.

Beth and I almost got sideswiped last night in one of the two worst intersections in Carbondale. I swerved to the right and accelerated through the intersection, making sure that other drivers weren't trying to take their turn as well. Beth was screaming and curling into a fetal position and was attempting to blast the horn.

What bothers me the most isn't that they idiots make mistakes, but that they don't know they made a mistake.

If the money was good, I would consider being a drivers ed teacher.

The one thing I insisted upon when Ian began driving was to KNOW YOUR CAR--how it reacts, how it handles in various conditions. Gordon took him to an empty parking lot during rain and snow to have him practice manuevers so he knew exactly how the car reacted and how to control it in various situations.

I've always done the same thing myself, which is also why I like the Saturns I've driven so much. The handling is excellent on them, and I know how the car is going to react in various situations.

I recall the year Gordon and I got married (1980) we'd gone on a skiing trip in Northern Michigan. It was snowing like a bitch as we headed out early morning from the hotel to the ski resort. People were driving like idiots, and one impatient fellow decided to pass us on a two lane, snow covered road. I knew what would happen (just as Jeff did). The fellow lost it just as he passed the car in front of me and both connected with each other and spun in different directions. Knowing there was no way I could stop, I calmly manuevered between the two spinning cars.

Gordon was extremely impressed and from that day on insists I drive more like a guy than the normal woman.

I take that as a compliment.

I think the reason I dislike people in SUV's and vans is because they are driven either by women who cannot handle a smaller vehicle, let alone a large one, or by men who think they are god in their huge SUV's and are indestructible.

I don't miss that aspect of Ohio at all. I hated driving around all the morons in the winter. Of course in Phoenix, it was the same with rain. It rains so infrequently that the roads become slick with the layers of dust and oil that have accumulated on the road over the past few months. People there haven't figured out to slow down when it's like that. It was one of those days that this guy rear-ended me and smashed up my back door. It did way more damage to his car though, so it made me feel a little better.

I lived just outside Tiffin. Blackswamp Volleyball Center?? My niece has started to play this year on a 13s, and is loving it.

The tournament was actually at the university, though Black Swamp's 16 open was in the tournament.