Annikki is passionate about the weather, whether it be the snow fall in Houston or the burning heat wave in the Antarctic causing the glaciers to melt!
I often wondered why, we, in Finland, and also in many parts of Europe, have this fascination with weather as we watch every possible weather bulletin, or even tune into it on the radio while driving.
As I was looking out of my kitchen window this morning I saw two snow ploughs working in tandem to clear the snow from a smallish side street. This is round the clock work in Finland as not a day of work is lost because of heavy snowfall, even if the temperature is down to -40 C.
It dawned on me that I will not venture out in winter without pausing to look at the thermometer outside my bedroom window. it is a sort of natural reflex action.
Based on what I see, i will pick up the correct outdoor gear, the shoes, the sweater, the overcoat, the gloves, the scarf.
It would be foolhardy to step out without the correct trappings.
Hence the fascination with weather reports is a sort of safety self preservation method if we are to survive in the freezing temperatures.
And does our fascination with the weather of other people sort of make us feel better or worse, happy or jealous, sad or joyful.
We certainly do not feel overjoyed at seeing the disastrous consequence of bad weather in different parts of the world, but we do feel confident and safe that the roads are being maintained properly here in Finland. It is a sort of comparison that we are automatically making. When we see something that is better than our system, off will go the letters to the authorities to take steps to improve our system.
In winter the speed limit on all our roads drops by 20 kmph automatically. it is a fool who does not follow this guideline as, not only is her or she risking his or her life, but the lives of several others.
Even at low speeds there can be havoc.
Just yesterday, I took a turning right in the centre of town. The car in front of me stopped in the middle of the road to make a left turn. I sort of automatically braked, as I have not yet got used to driving on the icy roads again. The car started to slither. There was no room on the right of the car, so I had no option but to let it slide to the left of the stepped car, right into the on-coming traffic. Luckily, the car stopped sliding as I shifted gear quickly, and the on-coming car, realising my predicament went to his extreme right, avoiding me.
The mistake was that of the driver of the car in front of me, as he should have moved to the centre of the road to make his left turn, leaving enough room for me to go through on his right.
But in an accident situation who is going to look at the right and wrong.
It was wrong of me to be so close to the car ahead. It was wrong of me to swing into the on-coming traffic. What I should have done is rammed the guy in the back. But any accident where you hit someone from the back will be counted as your fault!
I thank my lucky stars that I got out of that situation unharmed.
If I had watched the weather news in the morning before I left home, I would have seen the warning sign that driving conditions in our area were dangerous. My fault!
