We started getting the asterisks beat out of us here in DFW. Lightning strike close to home knocked out power for the neighborhood-- we were getting ready for school and work by candlelight and hand-crank flashlight...

And stupid me I have battery backup on most everything but had the router plugged into a surge-only outlet-- d'oh!

I opened the front door to take a look outside and was greeted by another strike a few streets over... the immediate thunderclap almost stopped my heart.

Power just came back on, and now I gotta see if I can get the kids to school...

I looked at the lighting map and you guy's are still getting hammered in the northern part of the state. We are supposed to get some lighting this afternoon in southern Oregon also. This reminds me that I need to get a new UPS as mine just quit.

It's finally calmed down here, but there's proof that too many people don't know how to drive in the rain... especially in SCHOOL ZONES.

Texrat --

You can probably safely remove the phrase "in the rain" from your sentence above, and still retain the same amount of validity.

Yeah, good point briand. But the slick streets aren't helping their "skills"!

I remember those storms from when I lived in DFW. Don't miss em a bit.

You're likely right... I just miss the few instances when there is actually snow on the roads here... That's the time when I turn off the traction control and have some fun...

traction control = good idea

neat, blinky, "Traction Active" light in the control cluster when I get it to engage = bad idea

Traction control? what's that?

Really, rain, snow, even sliding around in rain or snow on the roads isn't that dangerous, as long as you know how to handle your vehicle. (If you don't know how to handle it when one, several, or all four wheels are slipping, you don't know how to handle it.)

It seems that since front-wheel drive became prevalent, limited-traction driving skills have decayed. Just because an acceleration skid is generally self-correcting when you slack off, people either think they are invincible or (a few) it's unsafe to go over 10mph when it's slick.

It may be for some people... but I have found that the "seat of the pants" traction control works much better than any electronic alternative... With it on you can not predict what the car is next going to do. It is like there is two drivers driving the same car.

P.S. I did learn to drive in Finland... where snow and ice covered roads are common like 6 months in a year...