Funnies in traffic part II

I am in the process of reading the drivers manual to finally get the written and driving test done soonish...

In the meanwhile I keep getting amused about traffic signs in Texas.

This adds up to the post about Funnies in traffic

If it rains, am I supposed to stop the car for the next xx amount of miles and watch for the water to sit on the road? :o) :o)

I did not get the photo fast enough but in Houston China Town there was a sign stating:
"Posting of signs is prohibited by city ordinance"

Everything in this country needs to be announced by signs:

I know the meaning of it is to make sure that car drives give way for people coming and going to the church or warn about possible cars slowing down to turn to the church road. Just wondering with a laughter if that sign truly adds so much value.
Those who think that " well we got signs which direct you to the direction of the church", yes agree that makes sense. This sign was on the church grounds by the road, which leads to noticing the church before you notice the sign. Which got me to laugh..."Church!" ..."No kidding! Saw it already!" :o)

Not sure if I ever get the drivers license, as I might not be able to pass the driving test with a straight face.

Numbers and alphabets in American style

Though I am not native speaker, one thing that Finnish school system is great about is grammar and spelling in foreign languages. Which is good cause in average in US one gets to spell things lot more than what I was used to in Finland and e.g. in Germany.

Finnish tends to be more phonetic with the logic "what you see is what you get". So, for names and addresses one does not come across the need to spell them out loud unless they are of foreign origin.
US being the mecca of everything-being-originally-more-or less-of-foreign-origin and with some localization attempts in between something that sounds the same can be written in dozens of different ways.

It seems that here I tend to get myself in trouble, has happened more than once. No matter how carefully I try to spell.

When spelling my current last name it tends to always get still wrong.
In the beginning I spelled it on the phone the way I had gotten used to doing it e.g. while living in Singapore: R-double O-S.
I stopped saying the "double O", cause nearly 90% of the time that resulted to ROSS or RWS :o)

After the wedding in June I will have really easy name from local perspective...so I trust that will decrease the need of spelling my last name :o)

When it comes to giving the address or talking about numbers, getting married won't solve that one...
Again, I have started giving the address the way I learned to do it in Singapore (and honestly it worked there!!). But here for some reason when I say " seven-hundred and five" or "seven-hundred-five" it results to 7005. Thanks to that I have been waiting for my laptop now for 2 weeks back from the repair. The poor UPS courier must be so fed up by now..... Running around and trying to find a building that does not exist. Every time UPS called I confirmed the address to be " seven-hundred and five". Which basically continued the poor UPS guy to get totally confused and the computer was sent back few times to shipper.

As I was guided by my fiancé I should give the numbers as: seven-[oh]-five. Though he confirmed technically I was saying correctly as " seven-hundred and five".

After 4 calls and changing the way to seven-[oh]-five I have been successful and get my laptop back tomorrow :o) :o)

When I am at the store, if the amount to pay would be, let's say the same 705 dollars. Then the right way is " seven-hundred and five". Though, there it seems to have variations....depending on where one is :o)

I learned a lot again.....knowing how to spell perfectly or how to technically do it right, does not guarantee the right results :o)

Winter....

I tend to say that where ever I go I take the best things from each country (where I've lived) with me. But it might have been taken bit too literally this time :o)

Whilst in Finland the winter has been super mild and short, compared to the 3 previous winters. In Houston it has been "record cold" winter. Alabama, where I am regularly for work, I got to witness what one calls the winter storm (read: winter chaos) for 3 days.

On Monday everyone was stating that following day one should stay in the home office mode. I was too stubborn to take that. I drove early in the morning to the office, roads were dry. Funny enough at the office there was pretty much only me, a Swede, a German and another Finn.

In the afternoon it was not raining just slush or snowing, it was raining ice. I made my way back to hotel timely and drove like I have been taught to drive in the Finnish driving school.

On that 1 hour drive back to the hotel I realized why the locals were so anxious to stay home to start with. The roads where straight from formula 1 nightmare. Cars were all over banged against poles, in the ditch. As one could say, I know to trust my own driving in winter conditions....but I cannot trust anyone else around here.

Grown up in the wintery conditions as I have and having the understanding what icy road means to moving vehicle and how to control it....it was an eye opening experience and made me realize that there is big part of the nation, who do not understand the simple laws of physics. From that perspective I understand the urge to keep everyone home and make the snow storm sound as terrifying as possible.
As the more of those maniacs are on the road, who drive carelessly, the more hopeless and dangerous the situation gets for everyone, incl. the police forces.

At the end this chaos lasted 3 days. I was stuck at the hotel for 2 days and there was absolutely nothing open. Not even restaurants (other than the one at hotel). It was reliving feeling to get back to office after those days and see people, be on the move.

Views from the road

 Does not seem like a lot of snow....

 Hotel's pool was empty for some reason :o) (surrounded by snow on the ground)

Some links to local news about the snow storm "Leon"
http://www.weather.com/news/commuter-conditions/mobile-alabama-travel-forecast-winter-storm-leon-20140129

http://blog.al.com/live/2014/01/southwest_alabama_gears_up_for.html

As fun fact comparison view of my car during winter 2013 in Finland (snow which arrived over night):

...and the story goes that a certain Finnish lady brushed the snow off from her car and drove to work with it.....just like everyone else in the whole country :o)