It’s only ten months ago since Ireland was covered in snow, and it has now returned with a vengeance.  It’s amazing how quickly the Irish drivers forget how to drive while the roads are icy.  Even the ice truckers from Canada would advise caution when going on to these roads.  Despite that, I witnessed several car accidents the first morning of the “snow storm”.

If you have read my Arctic conditions blog, you would realise that when a bit of snow hits the Green Isle, the country goes into a weird phase – drivers forget the basic driving skills and no roads are cleared.

I’m not saying that I’m a great winter driver, but I’ve had my share of snow covered roads during my driving days in Denmark and in the US.  So, when my wife was leaving the house on the 4×4 look alike SUV, I told her to drive carefully.

Carefully means, drive slowly and keep your distance when driving in slippery conditions, which includes avoiding  hitting the breaks.

My wife is a great driver, but she does have a short fuse when it comes to fellow drivers.  It doesn’t take much for her to change the language and body signals completely.  It can actually be very scary to witness.

As she was driving on a slippery road and stopped slowly at a roundabout, she patiently waited for the traffic to give her safe room to enter the roundabout.  Unfortunately the car behind her didn’t appreciate the calmness and speed it took for her to enter the round about and honked the horn furiously.  She had only been waiting a minute or two.

Calmly, my wife let out a rant and abuse words, in the privacy of the car.  She raised her hand slowly and gave the driver behind her a universal sign; the finger, the bird, middle man, the stick, etc.

… probably not the best idea!

The driver behind her spotted the famous finger and turned on his police blinks.  Oops!

It was in fact an unmarked police car, who must have been in a hurry and had little patience.  Obviously, the officer should have known not to create this kind of road rage, especially during the Irish Blizzard.

There was no reason for him to hunk the horn.  But, what happened next was totally unnecessary.  Yes, my wife gave him the finger, but there’s no need to shout at her.

He came up to the car and started to shout angrily at her. I’m sure his mojo was completely destroyed when my wife calmly asked “is it necessary for you to shout at me?”

The officer asked my wife, no joke, if she was parked!  Why would you park at a round about?  She was merely waiting for a moment where the was a gap in the amount of cars, so she could continue her journey.

Yes, my wife gave the unmarked police car the finger, for honking at her in treacherous driving conditions.  He could have given her a ticket, but perhaps he should have attended the anger management and customer service courses instead.

My dear wife rang me after the incident, in tears, to tell me about it.  We had to joke about it and I’m proud of her.  If the officer had given her a ticket, then I would have framed it.

As Judas Priest once sang “Breaking the law, breaking the law“.

My little rebel.  I’m proud of you.  You take no bullshit from anybody.