Author:
Blog About:
I love winter. I do. I actually love every season. I prefer it, though, when they stay in their lanes. Watching the poor daffodils wilt under an onslaught of sleet put me distinctly out of sorts this morning. Honestly, though, I’m sure it would depress anyone. It would depress circus clowns and hyenas and the people who get paid to record laugh tracks. I’m sure it would even depress Curly, the obnoxiously cheerful protagonist from the play Oklahoma.
That latter reflection led me to wonder what Curly would have sounded like, if Rogers and Hammerstein had set their play in New England (Think, “Maaaaaaaaasachusetts, where the cars sit frozen on the Pike . . . .”). I think his ode to morning would have been way less chipper. It might even have sounded like . . . .
Oh what a miserable morning! I’d like to just skip this bit.
I’ve got a miserable feeling, everything’s going to shit.
There’s a fresh sheet of slush on each byway,
And the black ice has covered the highway.
The roads are so slick that the driving is sick.
I think I’ll stay home and just play with my erector set.
Hmmmm. Needs work, I think . . . .
Comments
Thank you for the laughter this morning…….
I awoke to the lovely sound of a snow plow this morning, which was not wholly unexpected. The light coming in my bedroom window had the unnatural brightness to it that is only caused by the reflection off of newly fallen snow. I sprang to the window, just to see how much misery and pain I would have to deal with this day of snow removal, knowing that like our last storm this shit would be too heavy for the snowblower to move.
Luckily, it barely covered the grass (which had only been revealed from the previous week’s snow a few days ago), and was apparently melting rapidly.
So I pulled a sweater on over my nightgown and headed downstairs to grab my first cup of coffee and see just what the sidewalk and street looked like. Peering out the window in the front door, to my delight I saw a street that was basically clear with just a small pile of slushy mess plowed up at the end of my driveway and around the cars parked at the curb. The sidewalk was slightly covered with wet, heavy snow - but the walk to my front door and the area of sidewalk directly in front of the house were already clear due to the effect of the tree in my front yard blocking some of the falling snow and what little had covered the walk had already melted.
With a bit of luck, by the afternoon the rest will be mostly melted away with the rain leaving me but a small mess to clean up at the end of the driveway - and of course my car to clear off as our garage only holds one car, leaving one to sit out at the curb in front of our house.
It is typical for us to get late snow here - I live in Saratoga County about 20 miles north of Albany (the state capital of New York for those who do not know), which puts us just west of New England. Roughly an hour from Stockbridge, Ma, or 30 minutes to Bennington, VT. As we are in the Hudson River Valley (the river is some five blocks from my house - roughly a quarter mile), we get less snow than the higher elevations around us, thankfully!
But I hate winter with a passion. The cold doesn’t bother me as much as many I know - I simply dislike it, rather a lot you might say. I hate how everything is dead and brown, and as pretty as new fallen snow looks, it takes but a few hours for it to start to look dirty and grey. I hate having to constantly clean dirt and road salt from my car, especially knowing that a trip of only a few blocks will have it covered with road spray once again.
For those who like winter - sue me for being honest. I am a Southern California girl who grew up between the beaches of SoCal and the Florida Space Coast. If I want to see snow, I would rather travel to the mountains for a week or two and then return to the warmth of the beach. I blame my parents for dragging me to upstate NY in my teens, and my spouse for keeping me here. Between them they conspired to condemn me to cold, shitty weather and to listen to, “I love the changing of the seasons!”
Give me my two seasons and I will be happy - dry season and rainy season for me. You can keep this winter shit.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Southern California girl
Or, in my case, Northern California. While I was born in Pasadena, I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 70 years, having been in kindergarten when my father got out of the Army, and we moved to the Santa Clara Valley (now known as Silicon Valley) because the Los Angeles area was too crowded and smoggy even then, in 1954! Today it only got up to 50° and we are complaining about the cold. Yes, if we want snow, we can be in Tahoe by lunch, assuming the highways are clear. And we can see San Francisco Bay from our front door. I have only had to live in snow for two winters, when I was in the Army, and that was plenty.
April Fool's Day and weather
I grew up in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts where (at that time) snow was not uncommon! Saw 16" or so on April 1st one year! Snow on Easter Sunday was not uncommon -- makes for an interesting Sunrise Service! Of course that was also an era when all roads were basically two lane (no Mass Pike!), 45 mph speed limit, and you could easily walk to the store, school, church, dentist, doctor, etc. To be honest, that era was also well before I was of an age to be able to legally drive on a highway! Fast forward and one of our offspring is a professional liar -- er, forecaster for the National Weather Service --for 20+ years! And while legally I can drive on the highway, I am smart enough to stay off the darn thing when the idiots that pretend to be drivers are either flooring the gas pedal or slamming on the brakes when the offspring says the weather is bad! And don't get me started on manual transmissions!!
Manual transmissions should not be an issue……
Rather the problem is that most people have no idea how to drive with one in snow. If you learned how to drive with an automatic transmission, or have never had anyone explain the difference between how the two drive in snow, then you (the driver) are the issue.
Unlike an automatic, you cannot simply take your foot off the accelerator in the snow with a manual transmission. If you do, the engine acts as a brake and will cause the drive wheel/wheels to lock up and put you into a slide or spin. You must dis-engage the clutch by stepping on the clutch pedal in order to slow down so that the engine idling does not cause the wheels to slow down or stop turning and result in the car going into an uncontrolled slide.
Drivers who have become accustomed to simply lifting off the accelerator to slow down, or worse - downshifting, need to understand that you cannot do that in slippery conditions as it will simply cause a slide.
The car, or the type of transmission, are not the issue. The problem is inexperienced or untrained drivers. Unfortunately, that seems to include most people when it comes to driving in snow, and as manual transmissions are no longer the norm, that applies for their use as well.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Driving technique
The driving technique you describe is very similar to the one I learned in the 1980 on the dirt roads in South America. Especially when it rained. Depending on the type of soil wet roads could be just fine with some water spray, or they could be slick as soap, or they could be a sticky mess that would roll up on your wheels and clog your fenders, or they could be so soggy that your wheels would sink in up to the axles. Sometimes you just had to floor the gas pedal and quickly up-shift through second to third gear and be very, Very, VERY nimble on the steering wheel.
Starting in the early 2000s our communities started hauling in gravel from over 400km away. (We lived in a huge prehistoric flood plain know as the Gran Chaco of South America with absolutely no rocks nor mountains far and wide.) This gravel was then spread on worst stretches of road in thin layers, and after each rain the traffic would literally knead that gravel into the roadbed. And over time the roadbed would become compacted and quite solid. In many other areas we would just haul in the right type of soil. But above all, it was very important to grade the roads after every rain while still moist so that the roads had a proper crown and substantial ditches along both sides to prevent standing water on the road proper.
Starting in 2010 the government has started to pave the main roads with asphalt, even beyond our communities. And this has further enhanced the year-round all-weather capabilities for road travel.
But even so, it is hilarious to observe all those dandies from the capital get stuck with their big 4x4 SUVs while the locals just zip along in their 2x4 Toyota Hilux (or similar) pick-ups or their small Ford Escort or VW Golf family cars.
Ah yes, the Toyota Hilux…….
The preferred vehicle of terrorists the world over.
I have seen many of them modified into technicals through the addition of a machine gun, a recoilless rifle, mortar, or some other weapons system. Or simply with the bed full of screaming idiots armed with Kalashnikovs.
I wonder if some designer at Toyota sat at a desk one day decades ago and said to himself, “Let’s build a truck for every terrorist asshole in the world to use!”
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Japan Funding The Terrorists???
Sort of makes me wonder.
Not funding them...
Just making money off of them.
Goto for ranchers
From the early 1980s until the late 2000s the Toyota Hilux was the number 1 default go-to vehicle for ranchers and farmers all over Paraguay. Because is was long-lasting and had great fuel economy.
Maybe it does need a little work, but it's funny
I can't say that I'm partial to any particular season, but Spring is nice. Living west of the Cascades in Oregon all of my life, except for a couple of years in Kansas between ages 2 and 4 -- of which I only remember glimpses, I don't see a lot of snow. Though being a truck driver that had to venture to eastern Oregon a couple of times a month, I've become fairly skilled at driving in the stuff. So when it does hit, I can get around OK.
I retired (semi retired, I'm not meant to set around all day) six years ago and moved to a small town in the foot hills of the Coast Range, some 600+ ft above sea level (as apposed to 27 in Portland) we do see a bit more snow here. This time of year it's pretty mild. Generally in the low 40s for a low and as high as the high 60s for a high. But this morning, when I headed out to make my morning run driving school bus, it was 34. Cold enough for me to want my gloves.
What's with that? Last week was Spring Break... time for some Spring weather.
Keep working on that refrain... it's got promise. ;o)
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Poor 'drea's wet
I'm aw'fly wet
I'm aw-ful-ly wet
It stormed all over my town
On the way back from Rite Aid
I got caught in the rain
Getting soaked gave me a
frustrated frown...
DERP
Love, Andrea Lena
Hail on Women and Horses
This part of the One Star Review State, though in the path of totality, has spring storms forecast Monday. Hoping for no ice, or at least smaller than baseballs.
Delightful
Could just as well have been reset in Old (as opposed to "New") England. OK a few revisions to anglicise it!
But much entertainment received!
Dave
Thoughts on weather
Due to the weird weather patterns this year my neck of the woods had one of the mildest winters ever recorded, certainly one of the warmest on record. I did occasionally feel a little guilty watching what was going on around the country but when the same week last year was a -20 degrees and this year was a plus 50 degrees I figured we deserve it once in a while. The bad part is that when we did get a little snow everyone had to learn how to drive in it all over again. I get less fond of the cold and slippery roads every year but there is something to be said about living someplace with 4 seasons not just green and brown. Of course most years all we get is winter and road construction seasons.
Time is the longest distance to your destination.
Put down the Chocolate Easter Bunny
No more nibbling on the left over Chocolate. The only detox for chocolate is milk straight from the dairy before it's been homogenized, pasteurized and diluted with water so it's no longer Mother Nature's Own.
I'm sorry, the with drawls from a chocolate high is sheer torture without the detox. It's the price one pays for wild abandonment of all morals indulging in chocolate excess.
There is another choice. Hug a bunny although you probably won't be fully healed after eating his colocate buddy.
Hugs Emma, payback for satire on Oklahoma is raw and brutal.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
High tollerance
I have a high tolerance for both caffeine and chocolate. Starting in my early teens I began my training in both. They say that anyone who drinks six cups of coffee a day is a heavy coffee drinker. I get that much by lunch time.
As far a chocolate goes I've refined my taste buds to only accept dark chocolate. 40% cacao minimum and that's pushing it. I much prefer 72%, I keep a bag of Dove dark around all the time and on special occasions, like Christmas, Easter and my birthday I can count on my youngest daughter to get me some Ghirardelli Intense Dark 72% cacao. I always ration that so that it lasts several weeks. My birthday is March 1st and with Easter on the thirty-first I got short changed this year because my wife told her that I still had some of my birthday chocolate left. Next year will be better with Easter being April 20th. I should be through the birthday stash a week before Easter.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Need more Anonymous Clubs
Kelly can't function in the morning until she's had her transfusion of caffeine. I suggested Caffeine Anonymous. It was wasted breath. Patricia reading your post I suggest serious help. Caffeine Anonymous on Monday nights and Chocolate Anonymous on Friday nights.
Hugs Patty, it's never too late of go cold turkey on the addiction.
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Don't tell me there's no such thing as magic
Every morning I drink an elixir made with magic beans and it brings me back to life.
Coffee is the cure for which there's no known disease.
If you think I'm likely to give up coffee or chocolate just remember that the only way to get them from me is to pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Shock treatment
That reminds me of an instance where my dad tried to cure us from wanting chocolate (and other sweets or candies for that matter) by a shock treatment when I was about 6 years old. Chocolate and other candies were rather rare for us, because they were expensive and hard to acquire since they tended to melt in transit.
So my dad would often splurge on chocolate for my moms birthday, and wrap them individually for my sibling and me to give as a gift. That year he decided that since “chocolate is poison for the teeth” we should consume all five or six big chocolate tablets that very night. His hope was that we would get overfeed and sick of chocolate. Suffice to say that his strategy backfired spectacularly. And even years later my mom was still kind of cross at him when she remembered that episode.