That was funny, seriously funny.

Ron

The award is Gopher's idea. I think a good one.

 

Back to the weather...

Today has been VERY windy. They had a high-profile vehicle ban on I-25 from Monument Hill to the New Mexico border, which is 162 miles of highway. I could definitely see why when I came down from Monument to Colorado Springs, a distance of 11 miles, and there were five big rigs on their side. Despite that, there were literally dozens of morons that were still driving their rigs past the carcasses of their brethren. Stupid, stupid, stupid. As near as I could tell, at least none of the trucks tipped over onto cars next to them. I expect to see quite a few more on my way home.

 

Rumor control seems to think by 3:00 AM things will start to get ugly. Snow but it should turn to freezing rain and ice just about morning rush hour. This should convert many of the interstate highways to a giant ice rink. I do not miss my daily commute of 25 miles every day North on I-271 to work or the 25 mile return, especially during the winters. Enjoying morning coffee and catching the morning news and weather suits me well. To those of you who still commute, I wish you safe travels.

Ron

 

The award is Gopher's idea. I think a good one.

Agree. Gopher comes up with some good stuff.

Ron

 

Are the points redeemable for a prize?

 

2017 Jan 07, Saturday
100 vehicle pileup on HWY 401 east of Toronto.

 

The Pineapple Express 'atmospheric river' is pushing up to NorthernWest Oregon tonight.

Will be a great snow day for the kids tomorrow.

 

The weather here has been wacky. It was 7F just a week or so ago, now tomorrow it will be 60F. The forecast looks like a roller coaster for the next couple of weeks. Going from the 30s F into the 50s and 60s F.

What really upsets me is I just spent $600 on a new 2 stage snow blower and I think I have used it only twice this year. I could have just used a shovel as there was not all that much snow on the ground at the time.

I will bet the ski resorts here are freaking out. Can't imagine how I would feel if I had that huge investment in property and equipment and it wasn't returning a profit.

 

Are the points redeemable for a prize?

Collect 10 and you get blocked by the majority of the forum.

 

Snow LOS on the Ka band dish.

Snow LOS on the Visible band array.

...GREATER PORTLAND/VANCOUVER/NEARBY AREAS AND FOOTHILLS...
PORTLAND...WEST HILLS/NW CORNELL 14.5 INCHES 6 AM WED
BANKS 12.0 3 AM WED
PORTLAND...NORTH PORTLAND 12.0 3 AM WED
PORTLAND...NORTH/UNIV OF PORTLAND 12.0 2 AM WED

They are finally using salt.

ODOT said trucks have been laying down salt on particularly dangerous roads, like portions the Sunset Highway.

 

They are finally using salt.

They love salt around here. The salt mines run out under lake Erie so we have plenty of salt. We are now finding roadside vegetation similar to where I grew up on Long Island and cars and trucks pay the ultimate price being eaten by salt and brine.
Back to Long Island and growing up. One thing Long Island has is sand, like an infinite supply of sand. When we got hit with snow or blizzard they just ran a road grader over it and the cars hard packed it. Amazing how much traction you get on hard packed snow once you learn to drive on it. Then large dump trucks came around to intersections with two guys and shovels on the back of the truck and at intersections sand was spread for added traction. Pennsylvania was using cinder.

The problem with salt or the now favored brine is the stuff destroys vehicles. The mist also clings to high voltage wood utioity poles which start burning. While impressive to watch not fun when people lose power in dead of winter. However, it keeps Morton and Cargil happy as we dump hundreds of tons of salt on the roads. Another problem with salt is when we get down to single digits the salt is useless.

I came upon a nice truck for my wife, her Denali was starting to rust out. She was driving an old 2002 Yukon Denali. I found an Arizona, low mileage (50K) Tahoe. The truck, from Arizona was priced right and absolutely minty. Had a friend totally undercoat and seal it. She now has a really sweet 1999 Tahoe which looks and drives much better than her newer truck which my neighbor bought. Cleveland and Ohio in general with their love affair with salt sucks.

Back to Long Island and growing up.

I should have mentioned also that while I figure growing old is mandatory growing up is optional. Acording to family members (siblings) with good educations I seem to suffer from what my sister calls "peter Pan Syndrome) which is cool with me as I never had any great desire to grow up.

Ron

 

They love salt around here. The salt mines run out under lake Erie so we have plenty of salt. We are now finding roadside vegetation similar to where I grew up on Long Island and cars and trucks pay the ultimate price being eaten by salt and brine.
Ron

It's mainly for the interstate and a few places with large hills not inside the city. Portland defacto banned it for years but having the main I-5 North-Sound highway blocked for days because of a few inches for snow every week made even the local tree-huggers say uncle to salt.

The way it rains here the salt won't stay on your car or the road for very long after a warm-up.

 

Wow, memories of I-5 and my CA days. Two main Interstate Highways in my life, I-5 and I-95. Yeah, around here they go ballistic with the salt and like I mentioned we are seeing the sort of vegetation thriving which is common to seaside areas with salt spray.

Ron

 

Snow day and the snow chicken?

 

Yay, a snow chicken.

Ron

 

Check out this fool! This is why you need to treat the roads with salt.
http://www.kptv.com/clip/13021521/portland-motorist-drives-wrong-way-down-i-5-during-snowstorm

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -

Our Good Day Oregon cameras were rolling when we captured a Portland motorist heading the wrong way down I-5 northbound near Highway 217, dodging trucks and other cars

 

Every now and then we see something unbelievable. I did catch the mention of chains which brought back memories of my CA. days and you needed chains and or 4 WD to go through the passes. Back to the 70s, wow. I guess I can see the need for the evil salt.

Around here they try to drive in snow with bald tires. Heck, I see cars using a few donuts as tires. What Ohio could use is a state inspection system.

Thanks for sharing the video, never would have thunk....

Ron

 

Check out this fool! This is why you need to treat the roads with salt.
http://www.kptv.com/clip/13021521/portland-motorist-drives-wrong-way-down-i-5-during-snowstorm

I. Love. Florida.

 

I. Love. Florida.

Later this month, Ft. Lauderdale. Then 2 weeks in the Caribbean including Aruba so I can handle Ohio for now. Only a few more months of this cold dreary stuff.

Ron

 

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/snow-mountain-tubing-park-closed-due-to-snow/482217481

"Snow Mountain tubing park closed due to -- snow"