Like it isn't bloody cold enough already....

I think that you should might as well ask for an executive position since you are dreaming. You always have that Peace Corps bit to fall back on.

 

National Geographic has a lot of issues too that doesn't make it a bad magazine.

 

^-^ Well I am calling in sick for the first time ever today. Didn't sleep a wink last night with my soar throat.

 

Got about 4 inches last night. The bad stuff is just starting to arrive here now. Expect up to a half inch of ice (no snow though) tonight.

 

It was 69 (and humid) for the high today, and the forecast calls for the low to be 27. Hopefully the mosquitoes didn't watch the weather news today.

 

I really wish you guys would keep this cold stuff up there with you were it belongs. Three nights with low's in the teens just ain't right in south Texas!

 

We have gotten significantly less snowfall than this. As of the end of January, we've only gotten a smidgen less than 24 inches. Like last winter, we keep getting missed by the bulk of the storms and catch just the outer edges. Woke up this morning to a little over one inch of sleet with a nice slick layer of ice on top. Travel today is almost non-existent. The only vehicle I've seen this morning is the city bus which stops near my apartment.

 

My Lord, we got hit by the snow storm yesterday and it had howling winds. It's 1 degree in Albuquerque this morning with a windchill of 20 below. Tonight it's supposed to get 4 below!

How do you Northeast folks deal with this year after year?

 

Just kinda something you deal with. I grew up in this stuff, and even took my drivers exam during the New years blizzard in 2000-2001. I lost control temporarily but still passed based upon a few factors. 1 I didn't panic, and two, I knew how to gain control back. The instructor seemed genuinely impressed. Last winter we had a new neighbor move in across the street. She was from Tennessee. She came outside after a significant snowfall and was simply speechless for a few moments before asking another person "what in the hell am I supposed to do with it?" It was then that I realized, unless you grow up in it, it really can be a bear to deal with. When driving, it has more to do with sudden wheel movements, and drastic decreases in speed that causes most accidents rather than a simple driving to fast. Four wheel drive is nice, but all you really need is a good front wheel drive, though it can't be too light.

My area isn't all that bad either when compared to others out in the mid-west. Those guys are some troopers

 

Too true Mike, if you grow up in the stuff like myself you wonder what the big deal is? I remember one time I was running my hognosed Peterbilt through Lubbock Texas, and it had snowed on top of frozen rain and there were cars, pickups, and even a few semis going through stop signs and lights, bouncing off guard rails and each other like pinballs, and spinning out everywhere.

I remember the look on one guys face who was white knuckle gripping his steering wheel, pointed the wrong way on an exit ramp after spinning out. He looked like he might be sitting in a puddle.

 

I have been watching the path of this storm along with everyone else, with a little concern as far as people traveling and safety on the roads. We weren't slated to get any snow, and we didn't, but south of us was. I see all these people talking about Snowpocalypse and all this nonsense...if you live in the northern part of the country you should be used to it. Happens every year...it snows, you recover, you move on.

 

The weather channel people cry wolf so much it's not even funny. They do the same thing for hurricanes down here. Then there's a rush on the supermarkets that made the rush on the banks on the crash of '29 look like a stroll in the park.

Well Lou, have you ever considered doing the snowbird thing? Relaxing in south Florida right about now doesn't sound so bad, eh?

 

Yupper, people are strange at times. Back in the '78-'79 winter out on the farm we had a strange "air flow" wind set-up and the dang blow came out of the straight north or straight south not our normal "westerly" direction. All our wind-breaks and such were set up for the wrong direction. Consequently we had snow piled up in places it never had been.

As such our farm house (doors on east and south) was completely "snowed" under to the eves and we had to go out the second story bedroom windows to get to the shovels to dig out. I also had a barn full of bulls that I had to water and feed every day, and they never saw the light of day from late Dec. until March the next year. I had to slide the hay for them down the loading chute at the other end of the barn, and then crawl down there and bust the bales for them to eat. Same with water, snaked a hose down that chute every morning, filled their tank, and drained the hose so it wouldn't freeze solid overnight.

I had cows walk onto the top of the barn and stand there bawling until I took a snowmobile with a sled and lured them off the barn roof with hay bales and cake every day. When spring came, there were cow-patties all over my roof. That was some winter. Lost three horses to freezing that year too, I had taken down the surround fence around three loose hay stacks so they could get to the stuff on their own, but three of that year's colts weren't quite big enough to hold the body heat they needed, and just died from exposure.

Hope I never see another one like that.

 

How'd they do it back in the old days? Life was hard back then.