mountain man primitive watches snow-ploughing

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7708718

Oh my.

The mountain man primitive who, like all men, nightly pitches his tent one day's march nearer the mausoleum:

ThomWV  (1000+ posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 06:39 PM
HAS NOT YET DONATED TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
FOR SHAME!  FOR SHAME!  FOR SHAME!
Original message

You should see the thing that just plowed our road

This is our Government in action. We got right at 3 feet of new snow with the storm that hit last tuesday and the daily dose we've been getting since then. There has been no attempt at snow removal here, at least until late this afternoon. With over a foot of densely packed snow covering the roadway, smashed down to nearly the hardness of ice by the few 4x4 pickups that have gone down the hill, it was suprisingly easy to get around.

The snow was deep but you could drive on it as long as your wheels didn't punch through, if they did it got nasty in a hurry. Wednesday a neighbor with a front end loader had to be summoned to get my 3/4-Ton truck out of a ditch.

This afternoon there was a rumbling the ground that hit before the noise. Coming up the road in dullest green was some sort of retired military truck - but a truck to eat other trucks. I was in the Army and know what a two and a half ton looks like, this was bigger, much bigger.

In the back was crushed stone - not cinders for spreading but what I would estimate to have been 5~7 ton's of golf-ball sized stone just there for weight - traction. On the front of this lumbering beast - and it was lumbering along at maybe 10 mph - was god's own snow plow - appropriately heart shaped on this valentine's eve.

Down the hill he went, and then a half hour later up the hill he went. Where there was a foot of ice, three feet of snow, now there is bare asphalt. It is a sight to behold.

And I am so happy. This is Government, government in action. This is what taxes pay for.

Oh, and that wonderful glorious silly bastard of a driver buried my cars and truck so deep I'll have to get a back hoe in here to dig them out.

So it goes ...

Myrina  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 07:00 PM
Response to Original message
 
5. ... and what about the roads that it crushes in its wake?

Oops, we don't have infrastructure money to re-pave those roads once the snow melts. Sorry ....

ThomWV  (1000+ posts)      Sat Feb-13-10 07:05 PM
HAS NOT YET DONATED TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
FOR SHAME!  FOR SHAME!  FOR SHAME!
Response to Reply #5

7. This is West Virginia, they were never actually paved in the first place

It made me laugh, our road is paved only by West Virginia standards. It was dirt until one day they came along with some gravel, which they laid out smooth, and then sprayed with tar. The method makes a thing that looks like a paved road, and in fact will act like one too, for about one year. Yep, the plow takes up large chunks of it, but then so would the spring thaw, so its not like we lost much.

Mari333  (1000+ posts)        Sat Feb-13-10 07:09 PM
HAS NOT YET DONATED TO SKINS'S ISLAND!
FOR SHAME!  FOR SHAME!  FOR SHAME!
Response to Original message

9. Im in Michigan where the plows are a plenty but one year I saw a huge front end loader coming down the road, because even the plows couldnt get thru..it was actually paving a path for the plows, it was that bad.

my heart goes out to people who arent used to this kind of snow.

enlightenment  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 07:50 PM
Response to Reply #9
 
12. I remember that in Aurora, Colorado after the Christmas blizzard of 1973. A front end loader leading a couple of plows, about three or four days after the storm.

Pretty cool except for the 10 foot 'drift' that blocked our driveway . . .

[Carl]

Myrina  (1000+ posts)       Sat Feb-13-10 07:00 PM
Response to Original message
 
5. ... and what about the roads that it crushes in its wake?

Oops, we don't have infrastructure money to re-pave those roads once the snow melts. Sorry ....

One thing that will make the world better is if you just quickly died.

[The Village Idiot]

Myrina. You should ask Bo about that trillion stimulus just chock full of infrastructure spending.

Right.

[GOBUCKS]

How about a little snowplow poetry:

Yellow lights, blink, blink, blink, blink.

[Lord Undies]

Yep.  Government in action alright.  The reality is with the millions of billions of tax dollars collected by taxing gasoline, those roads should be radiant heated. 

Do the math sometimes, Little Goons.  See for yourself how much money, gallon-by-gallon, has been sucked out of the pockets of the "working families" in the name of roadway infrastructure and maintenance.  Those roads should be heated....and shiny gold.

[The Village Idiot]

Yep.  Government in action alright.  The reality is with the millions of billions of tax dollars collected by taxing gasoline, those roads should be radiant heated. 

Do the math sometimes, Little Goons.  See for yourself how much money, gallon-by-gallon, has been sucked out of the pockets of the "working families" in the name of roadway infrastructure and maintenance.  Those roads should be heated....and shiny gold.

You would think at least major roads and bridges would be heated.

[GOBUCKS]

You would think at least major roads and bridges would be heated.

I know of several big companies in snowy locations that have heated sidewalks and driveways on their property. I don't know what they cost to operate, but they work great. I'm sure they pay for themselves if they prevent a single lawsuit from a DUmmy who slips.

[franksolich]

Does anybody remember that Norman Rockwell portrait where two affluent Seven Sisters college co-eds are trying to replace a flat tire on one of those then-popular "woodie" station-wagons, and way up on top of the hill there's a mountain man sitting on his front porch, barefooted and corn-cob pipe in toothless mouth, watching them?

The mountain man primitive isn't doing much for public relations for West Virginia, griping about the roads like that.

[The Village Idiot]

The mountain man primitive isn't doing much for public relations for West Virginia, griping about the roads like that.

At least that mountain man had something worth looking at in the painting.

[diesel driver]

Back in 1996, when we had our second blizzard that dumped 38 inches of snow here, I had the good fortune of having my father's old International 460 backhoe at my place....

Before the state could come thru with their snow blower (for the 6 foot+ drifts), me and a neighbor with a D3 Cat had plowed the entire road the day after the snow stopped....

If we had waited for the state to do it, it would have been another 3 days....

As far as the roads in WV go, just remember 1 thing:  WV had and is still being lead by Dimrats....

'Nuff said...

[USA4ME]

ThomWV

With over a foot of densely packed snow covering the roadway, smashed down to nearly the hardness of ice by the few 4x4 pickups that have gone down the hill, it was suprisingly easy to get around.

..........

Down the hill he went, and then a half hour later up the hill he went. Where there was a foot of ice, three feet of snow, now there is bare asphalt. It is a sight to behold.

And I am so happy. This is Government, government in action. This is what taxes pay for.

Oh, and that wonderful glorious silly bastard of a driver buried my cars and truck so deep I'll have to get a back hoe in here to dig them out.

The average citizen had made the situation "suprisingly easy."

Gov't action is to do something that will temporarily make things somewhat better (now there is bare asphalt) while creating a situation that makes matters worse (buried my cars and truck so deep I'll have to get a back hoe in here to dig them out).

OK.   

.

[IassaFTots]

How about a little snowplow poetry:

Yellow lights, blink, blink, blink, blink.

 

[NHSparky]

I'm still amazed it's taking this long to get their asses moving again.  I was in Denver for the blizzard of 1982 and we were stuck for 2 days, tops.  I've seen more snow pile up in a week here than DC could ever begin to imagine, and it's never been that bad.  Pick up, drag out, salt and sand it down, then move on.

And oh yeah--roads here get the shit torn out of them with frost heaves and the like, yet somehow we manage.