It finally snowed in the Twin Cities. Not much, mind you; just a few inches accumulated on the ground. I hate to admit it, but I was too scared to drive while it was snowing. No, no, no; Indiana has not gotten to me. I blame my fear on the Bimmer’s tires.

According to Tire Rack, my Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position tires are “Max Performance Summer” tires, tested to 186 mph. They rank a 9.3/10 (“Superior”) on a dry traction survey, but their snow traction is so poor that it’s not even ranked. Reviews corroborate their dismal grip on ice. Hence, I didn’t want to be out on the roads with a lot of (well, any) snow or ice.

I had been looking around for snow tires and winter wheels for a while, but I wasn’t very motivated to spend lots of money on some rubber and alloy. The snowfall pressed the issue, and by the next day, I had a set of snow tires on 17″ replica rims headed my way. They should be here by the end of the week; I hope Mother Nature holds off until then.

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Some administrative stuff: This afternoon, I noticed that my blogroll updater was AWOL for the past few days thanks to a problem with my error handler (namely, it didn’t exist). Errors are handled much more gracefully now, and everything is back to normal. I also decided to implement an inactivity sensor. If a blog goes without updates for more than one month, it is automatically de-blogrolled. If the dormant blog should spring back to life, it will automatically be re-listed.