Updated: 02/02/2009 12:43 PM KSTP.com | Print Story
By: Tim Sherno

SHERNO: Does your drive to work remind you of anything... like, maybe FROGGER?

I drive past a pot hole every night on the way home...it's a monster. It's at least two feet wide, and so deep the steel rebar in the pavement is exposed like long rusted teeth. I drift to the right to avoid it, but I have seen other drivers behind me who are not so lucky. You see their car bounce, the driver drifts weightlessly out of their seat, the contents of their car floating next to them for a split second, then, it all comes down. (I have seen this particular pot hole eat an entire car. It was a family from Ohio. One second they were there, the next they were gone. I wondered what happened to them, I was told "don't ask."

This time of year is bad, and it's getting worse. Warm days melt cold gritty ice into dirty black water that fills pot holes, flowing deep into every crack. Then, when the cold comes again, the water freezes and expands --cracking and crumbling the road like a pie crust. The pot holes get deeper. You drive to work on roads that look as if they were pockmarked by an asteroid shower.  "Honey, was there an asteroid shower last night?"

A real driving tip to avoid a detour to the autobody shop. This is the time of year to allow extra room between your car and the car in front of you. Here's why. It give you more time to spot and avoid any pot holes that may otherwise be screened.

Good luck out there. I keep climbing equipment in my car in case I ever need to climb out.

(actual photo of a man climbing out of a pot hole on HWY 169 in Eden Prairie)

(ok.. not 'actual' actual.)