The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: Mr Mannn on January 17, 2014, 05:16:16 AM
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I got off at 4. It had been snowing, no one thought anything unusual about this. The weather reports thought nothing of this.
2 inches of wet snow dropped in an half an hour. It turned to solid ice in minutes. Rush hour meant wall to wall people. Every hill became a trap. I was stuck on every single hill, along with every other driver. High winds meant whiteout conditions. People on the radio said this was the worst they ever saw in the city.
Good Samaritans pushed me off the road several times. Sand trucks couldn't make it up the same hills. I am thinking of calling in sick today. I can't imagine anything has improved since then.
If you thought my commute was bad, kids on school buses took just as long to get home.
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Wow, that sounds horrible! Glad you finally made it home safely!
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It does sound like a good day to take off. Glad you are safe. Please stay that way.
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Yeah?
And?
I was a 20-year old snot-nosed little shit who had just been hired in at the Boeing Company back in 1990. I was working down at the Renton, Washington plant on the 737 and 757 lines. A few days before Christmas we had what they called an Arctic express (probably what they called a polar vortex before they blamed glow bull whining for it) rolled into the area (it started out about 32° at 06:00 that morning, and the temps dropped like a rock from there - 25° at noon).
My boss sent us home about the time there was 4 inches of snow on the ground, at 3:00 that afternoon. I had gone out during my lunch break to put the tire chains on my car, just before the snow started falling, and, having heard that the I-405 was like a pin-ball machine already, I took the surface streets from Renton up to the Coleman Dock ferry terminal to Bremerton. That's normally a 30-minute trip, and it took 2 hours that day. I sat another 90 minutes at the ferry terminal, because the snow was delaying the ferries as well, and finally loaded up at about 7:00pm on a boat that was slated for departure at 5:55pm. I was literally the LAST car loaded on for that trip, and I breathed a sigh of relief, believing that the worst of my winter adventure was over.
Not by a long shot. The Pacific Northwest has got it's share of spectacular sights, but it's thunderstorms aren't normally one of them. I think it's because of the moist, marine climate, but there aren't a whole lot of the beautiful cloud to ground lightning strikes that we normally associate with thunderstorms. Well, this storm - I don't know why it was so different - was a thundersnow storm and as we pulled out onto Elliott Bay, I was watching cloud to ground strikes on Queen Anne Hill from the ferry's fantail. :popcorn: Then, one stroke hit apparently just the right spot, because I watch the bolt hit, and after that ALL of Seattle went dark. It was like - all of a sudden - somebody threw a switch, and anything off the edge of the car deck ceased to exist. I had never seen a night so completely black in my life.
The rest of the trip was no more anticlimactic than anything that had gone on before. Throw in sliding off into a ditch (tire chains are of limited use on an ice-packed hill), getting pulled out again, and slowly, and carefully inching my way home, and I gratefully pulled into the driveway about 11:30pm. 8 hours after I left work, on what was normally a 2-hour commute (including 1-hour on the ferry).
Glad you and yours made it home safe and sound.
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See...THAT's why I live in Florida.
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Mid 70's today and the rest of the week. I think I'll go fishing this weekend.
:cheersmate:
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It took me 7 minutes to get home yesterday after work. Today it'll be a bit longer because I need to get a haircut. And get the oil changed. Oh, and a Walmart run.
:whistling:
:-)
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Wow. Glad you made it home okay.
Bad roads - I can deal with it. Get stuck - I have enough stuff in each vehicle to last a few days. What would scare me is all the other people driving on the roads.
My sister, an automotive engineer, once asked why Wyoming ranked high in single car accidents. Simply there is no one around to smash into.
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Mid 70's today and the rest of the week. I think I'll go fishing this weekend.
:cheersmate:
We had some record highs last week and have been about ten degrees above normal. They are talking 80 degrees all next week, yesterday was 72. Today they are talking mid 70's and I have the day off work.
I give myself 15 minutes to get to work, it's only about 9 miles but there are a couple school zones and I never know when I will get stuck behind a bus. I usually make it in about 8 to 9 minutes.
Mr. Mann I'm glad you made it home safe. I dealt with those conditions for years in the Quad Cities and rural areas and do not miss it. Although I do think a fresh snowfall looks beautiful.
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That was ridiculous yesterday. We didn't even get much snow, but the 40 mile & hour winds made it like a blizzard.
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See...THAT's why I live in Florida.
Your prayer life gets a real boost when your stuck on an icy hill in Traffic. One guy in a four wheel drive pushed me into a parking lot. Two other times, people came out of stores to push stranded motorists out of trouble. Angels, every one.
Ya know if its gonna happen, its better to be in the Midwest where great people live.
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That was ridiculous yesterday. We didn't even get much snow, but the 40 mile & hour winds made it like a blizzard.
That blows.
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Mid 70's today and the rest of the week. I think I'll go fishing this weekend.
:cheersmate:
low 90's in So Cal today. Didn't have to chain up today :fuelfire:
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Your prayer life gets a real boost when your stuck on an icy hill in Traffic. One guy in a four wheel drive pushed me into a parking lot. Two other times, people came out of stores to push stranded motorists out of trouble. Angels, every one.
Ya know if its gonna happen, its better to be in the Midwest where great people live.
Darn tootin'! :yahoo:
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Wow. Glad you made it home okay.
Bad roads - I can deal with it. Get stuck - I have enough stuff in each vehicle to last a few days. What would scare me is all the other people driving on the roads.
My sister, an automotive engineer, once asked why Wyoming ranked high in single car accidents. Simply there is no one around to smash into.
You are so right!!! I grew up on a farm in NW Kansas, lived in Wyoming and Nebraska for much of my adult life...slick roads, whether muddy or icy, are fairly common. I now commute into Oklahoma, with some of the worst drivers in the country (think Texas beats them slightly.) They will drive 30 mph on the CLEAN side of the highway, all in their big SUVs and trucks, and all tailgating!! :mental: If one did hit the brakes, it would be a massive pile-up.
I am the one in my little front-wheel-drive Toyota, following the big dually truck down the messy side of the highway doing 50 or better. You can just see all those people looking forward to passing my car in the ditch later on. I must disappoint them terribly. :rotf: The roads down here are way better than I-80 in a blizzard...and Nebraskans don't slow down, and don't tailgate! (Unless they are from Omaha or Lincoln) :rotf:
I am glad you made it home Mr Mann. I would definitely stay home from work today!! There are a lot fewer nice folks around on Saturday. :-)
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I got off at 4. It had been snowing, no one thought anything unusual about this. The weather reports thought nothing of this.
2 inches of wet snow dropped in an half an hour. It turned to solid ice in minutes. Rush hour meant wall to wall people. Every hill became a trap. I was stuck on every single hill, along with every other driver. High winds meant whiteout conditions. People on the radio said this was the worst they ever saw in the city.
Good Samaritans pushed me off the road several times. Sand trucks couldn't make it up the same hills. I am thinking of calling in sick today. I can't imagine anything has improved since then.
If you thought my commute was bad, kids on school buses took just as long to get home.
You got my sympathy, Mr. Mannn. We got hills out the ass here. The snow ain't too bad... the thing that screws everything up is when the roads freeze. Unless you got chains, you are screwed. One of the reasons I drive a standard. :cheersmate: :cheersmate:
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Snowed an inch Monday night, This morning the roads were solid ice! I got to work, but nearly got stuck again in several spots...
The drive home was OK, the streets were cleared, salted and sanded. Great drive.
Now its snowing again! About an inch, I'm told. Great. That used to be nuthin to me. Now I dread tomorrow's drive to work.
I really need this vacation!
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Argh!!! Took me 30 minutes to drive approximately 5 miles in town late this afternoon on a major DSM street. People were driving 10-15 mph in a 35/30 mph zone. It isn't even all that bad out, just kind difficult to see where the lanes are. :banghead: :censored: :banghead:
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We've got @ 1 1/2 - 2 inches on the ground and it's supposed to keep snowing off and on until noon tomorrow. Then more snow is forecast for Friday and Saturday.
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<<<enduring snow, wind, life-threatening wind-chills.
<<<however, am probably better off than all you guys, who have to deal with other traffic.
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Yeah. In Des Moines, we just got 5 inches of snow and another 2-4 is falling now.
But. It hasn't turned to ice. I can deal with that.
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Yeah. In Des Moines, we just got 5 inches of snow and another 2-4 is falling now.
But. It hasn't turned to ice. I can deal with that.
I live a block off a main highway through the city, but it will take a couple days to be plowed. By then it will be packed down to ice. :mad:
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I got stuck watching the Weather Channel for 4 hours today... y'all are screwn. :)
KC, MO looked pretty bad. All we got was rain.
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Woo-hoo!!! We finally climbed above 0 degrees for the first time in over 12 hours! :yahoo:
Yes, it is only +1 degrees fahrenheit. Small victory, but progress I guess. Still don't want to get out the snowblower to finish the driveway.
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See...THAT's why I live in Florida.
It's why I've stopped my complaining about living in Florida and wanting to move back to St Louis to be with my family. Don't think I could take those cold temps anymore. I'm ashamed to say that when it gets 50 here I'm shivering.
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It's why I've stopped my complaining about living in Florida and wanting to move back to St Louis to be with my family. Don't think I could take those cold temps anymore. I'm ashamed to say that when it gets 50 here I'm shivering.
I could never live in those climates either. We get a lot of nights/mornings in the 40's, and that's the coldest I want to see.