A storm is brewing on the horizon............a snowstorm! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lee n. field]

The girlfriend and I have just finished all of our emergency prep. We're well stocked up on beer, wine, booze, and mixers. Went grocery shopping and got lots of emergency rations like shrimp,

Hey, don't forget videos.  The wife said Bustblocker was unusually crowded.  Pre storm frenzy (storm hasn't ammounted to hardly squat here yet, though they;re talking snow and sleet tonight.)

[charby]

G-98 Your dog sure looks like a Bernese Mountain Dog

Storm update here....
So I decided to go for a drive and pick up some gas for the snow blower. Realized that all I had was what was in the tank plus I wanted some apple flavored iced tea the filling station has in the coffee area.

It was sleeting/raining at the time and the trees were getting weighed down, all the pines look so sad and droopy. The roads were wet but there was no one out driving around.

The trees in my yard have shed some branches from the ice so I'll have some clean up when the snow melts.

Just started snowing, supposed to get up to 8" of wet snow, oh well another February storm. If tomorrow was Monday I'd get up on time, clean the drive and walks and show up to work half hour late but still before everyone else shows up. No one really ever cares about start time on snowy mornings.

-C

[Monkeyleg]

Latest weather update says that, by Monday morning, we may have had as much as twenty inches.

That may not seem like a lot to somone in Connecticut, but it's definitely a lot for Milwaukee.

OTOH, up in Michigan's UP, where my parents grew up, they'll often finish out the winter with over 300 inches on the ground.

So, take that, Connecticutters.

[charby]

my deck, ice undeneath an inch of wet snow, more snow to come



I'm bored at home... 

[280plus]

Phuh,,, we ain't hardly seen a LICK o' snow this winter. But I'm not complaining because the dang snowblower is busted again. Every year the thing won't start, no matter what I do. I even tried it at the beginning of the season and it ran fine, but come the first real shitstorm we had and nope, not gonna run anymore. Arrgghhh... 

 

[charby]

Phuh,,, we ain't hardly seen a LICK o' snow this winter. But I'm not complaining because the dang snowblower is busted again. Every year the thing won't start, no matter what I do. I even tried it at the beginning of the season and it ran fine, but come the first real shitstorm we had and nope, not gonna run anymore. Arrgghhh... 

 

Mine had that problem last year, problem ended up being I filled the gas tank with fuel in October and by December the octane dropped so much that I couldn't get it started when the temps were below 20 degrees. So now I use a 1 gallon can, purchase fresh fuel before the storm and only fill the tank up part way. (put what is left in the can into my trucks gas tank) I only fill the tank up part way to try and keep the amount of fuel held over between snowfalls to a minimum. I also started putting a squirt of PRI in the fuel and only buying the highest non oxygenated octane fuel, here in Iowa that is 93 octane.

So far it started everyday I needed it and one day it was -5 F. Mine is a pull start only 10 hp, even with Mobile 1 for oil it is still a bitch to pull the rope when it is below 10 F.

PRI is like stable but I have only seen it sold in marine catalogs/stores. With my boat it keeps the fuel good until I run out, sometimes two season depending how much I actually use the boat. The last time I bought it it was $16 for a bottle that was good to treat 256 gallons of fuel.

[280plus]

 I had run mine dry the last time I started it, with Stabil in it, and put fresh in just the other day. Starts but dies. Seems a bit leaky too. It WAS leaking but that stopped. Sigh, I'm hioping spring comes early cause at this point I'd rather wait till next year to take it in. Of couirse it looks like all that crap Wisconsin is getting is headed our way. 

[Gewehr98]

We just got home, after loading up the truck with a couple weeks' worth of extra groceries, and taking Mrs. G-98 out for her birthday dinner at the Chinese buffet (her choice).  The winds have picked up, drifting snow onto the interstate and Madison Beltline, with the occasional white-out when a big batch of the white stuff flies past your windshield. I took it slow on the way home, not going much above 55 on either the Beltline or Interstate. When we arrived at home, my driveway looked like it had never been plowed clean this morning, and the storm has only been going about an hour so far.   

The manager at the local Pick-n-Save was our bagger tonight.  There were a lot of bare spots on the shelves, and he said it's been madness since the blizzard warnings Friday.  Likewise, Blockbuster here has been besieged.  But I did see both Glass Nickle Pizza and Pizza Hut delivery cars cruising through the neighborhood.  I hope they get extra tip money tonight...

Yup, people think Bernie is a Bernese Mountain Dog. He's not, just a total accident between a St. Bernard papa and a really butt-ugly Catahoula Leopard Dog mama. I saw his mama, she was nursing Bernie and his siblings at the Humane Society when I first fostered him and his current housemate. He never went back at the 12 week point, and the Humane Society never called me telling me to bring him back.  So here it is, 3+ years later, and I have both Bernie and Quinn.   

[charby]

Got broken trees everywhere, weight of the ice and snow was too much for dormant trees. I have no clue how much snow we got but its wet and heavy. Time to get dressed, go out and start digging.

My bird feeder pole is all bent to hell from a plum tree falling on it. I may keep it can call it modern art.

-C

[thebaldguy]

We got about 13-15 inches of snow in Minneapolis. It's still coming down too. I was going to wait until later for snow removal, but the neighbors have taken care of our sidewalk and alley with their snowblowers. The city has plowed the street, but they have left 2-3 foot walls of snow next to parked cars forcing owners to dig out. Thank god we have a garage. They've declared a snow emergency, which means their revenue generators are turned on. It will cost you close to 200 dollars to get your car back if it's towed. The same distance tow from a tow truck would be less than half that, but the city feels the need to really punish residents. And then they claim they don't make any money on towing parking violators.

Hopefully roads will be clear for rush hour Monday morning.

[El Tejon]

We started getting a "wintery mix" (how I hate when the talking heads use that term) about 6pm Saturday.  I was at the gym when it started but had no problems driving home.  Had a few dozen slide offs across the county, no one got hurt.

Freezing rain which turned into rain as it warmed up overnight.  I guess they got snow up around Lake Michigan.  Beverly Shores where I go during the summer got a bunch of snow, but down here we got rain, buckets of it.

Washed away the snow except for the mounds in the parking lots.  It's now 45 and I'm off to the range which will be mostly quicksand with all the mud.  Blek!  Maybe I should have taken that AUSA gig in Houston in '95.

[Gewehr98]

My wife, #2 stepson and I just shoveled 24 inches of snow off our driveway, then attacked the 4-5 feet berm the county plowed right across our access to the main road.   

I don't think it really snowed that much, but instead drifted in some places thanks to the wind gusts.  If I open the vertical blinds to our back sliding door, you'll see 2 feet of snow up against the glass, level at the same amount all across the back deck.   

Around midnight last night we had "thundersnow", which was kind of like one huge flashbulb going off in the opaque cloud deck, vs. distinct lightning bolts.  The power flickered when it happened, and my first reaction was to head to the garage and get ready to fire up the generator and switch over to my 24v inverter backup system as needed. 

We dug the truck out, and freed our mailbox from the county-plowed berm.  The plow came screaming through once again as we were finishing up that end of our driveway, so we all stood at the end of the driveway waving our shovels at him like angry villagers chasing Frankenstein's monster.  He got the hint, and gave us our space vs. plowing us in again. 

Right now as I look out the office window, I see #2 stepson has his snowboard out and is using the berm we created on the side of the driveway, as well as the county-created berm, for a personal ski-jump ramp.   

[charby]

Well looks like we only got about 8" of snow but it was the wet heavy kind that has the consitancy of ice cream. Took me close to two hours with the snowblower to dig out mine and my neighbors drive, neighbor will be over later with some beer as usual.

I have a Siberian Elm in my side yard that lost about 1/3 of the branches, probably have to come down this spring becuase who knows what stress fractures happened to what is left of the tree. Plum trees out back are probably gone also. The white pines lost some branches but probably be okay.

Pushed a car out with Arizona plates that got hung up on the side street in the plow berm. He didn't have a clue how to get out, plus I guess in Arizona the don't understand you go to keep momentum up to get out the snow gumbo. Took him about a dozen attempts with me and 2 neighbors across the street to get him out.

I had my slowblower running at the same time and it ran out of gas, so I filled the tank about half full to finish and the pull cord broke but luckily the motor caught and started. Finished up and took Mrs Charby on a see storm damage/4x4 on side streets tour.

John Deere dealership was closed on Sunday so I went to Lowes to get a replacement pullcord, they wanted $7 for one, so I went and bought 50' of 5/16" nylon rope for $2.50. Got home and fixed it, now my green snowblower has a purple pull rope.

Called my parents in the AM and they had been without power since 2PM on Saturday and Dad was called out to an emergency 60 miles from their home. I guess the railroad needs electricity to work.

-C

[Gewehr98]

I understand folks needing to get out and do things when the weather turns sour, and I see the U.W. Hospital kept spare beds and food available for their staff to mitigate a bad commute.  The county hasn't asked me to stay downtown this weekend, but did for senior and mission-essential staff. I was home by 6 PM Saturday as the heavy stuff started coming down, and was glad to be inside by then. We all stayed home and just watched High Definition cable channels and baked tollhouse cookies. 

I was reading the Wisconsin DOT road reports at midnight and 3 AM today, with stretches of the Interstate labeled "Ice Covered and Hazardous" or even "Impassable". 

It saddened me to hear that a woman, her teenage daughter, and 8 year-old nephew decided to head somewhere during the blizzard, then lost control of their minivan on a curve and hit a county snowplow truck head-on.  The mother and daughter died instantly, the nephew was declared dead at the hospital.  The snowplow driver escaped unharmed, but was seriously traumatized by the event.

So what was so damned important that they had to go buzzing around in their minivan during the worst blizzard of the year?

Highway 151 runs behind my back yard.  Earlier this morning, my wife and I had the dogs out back for a potty break when we heard the distinctive crunch of metal-on-metal coming from the highway.  One driver got squirrely, and another ran right into him, sending both of them into the shoulder. 

If there's anything ironic about the storm and how people handle it, it's looking in the medians and shoulders for vehicles that spun out, and seeing Explorers, Suburbans, Tahoes, Cherokees, Durangos and other big 4x4 vehicles, some flipped on their sides or even upside down.  They seem to have an invincibility thing going...     

[grislyatoms]

If there's anything ironic about the storm and how people handle it, it's looking in the medians and shoulders for vehicles that spun out, and seeing Explorers, Suburbans, Tahoes, Cherokees, Durangos and other big 4x4 vehicles, some flipped on their sides or even upside down.  They seem to have an invincibility thing going...     

Coming back from Colorado Springs through the storm that hit a couple days before New Years I saw this all too frequently. I was in the granny lane doing about 30-35, hubs locked in, switching in and out of 4x4. The granny lane had recently been plowed, the hammer lane had not.

Toyota pickup passed me in the hammer lane doing 50-55!

5-6 miles down the road, there it was, same Toyota on it's side in the median. I didn't stop, a snowplow and a couple other vehicles had already stopped. Saw quite a few others in the median and off the shoulder, too. I guess folks think that 4x4 will make up for lack of driving skill and common sense.

[Monkeyleg]

4x4 drivers? I love 'em (or at least some of them).

Yes, 4x4 enables one to get a faster start in snow. But some drivers forget that those vehicles have the same humble braking systems as two wheel drive vehicles.

The best winter car I ever had was a 1972 Buick LeSabre. That car would go through just about any amount of snow, provided the driver had the skill. It also had the largest ashtray I've ever seen in a car. Could probably hold two packs of butts.

The worst winter car was my '65 Pontiac GTO. If there were more than three snowflakes on the ground, I'd just sit at the stoplight with the rear tires spinning.

[Manedwolf]

If there's anything ironic about the storm and how people handle it, it's looking in the medians and shoulders for vehicles that spun out, and seeing Explorers, Suburbans, Tahoes, Cherokees, Durangos and other big 4x4 vehicles, some flipped on their sides or even upside down.  They seem to have an invincibility thing going...     

Coming back from Colorado Springs through the storm that hit a couple days before New Years I saw this all too frequently. I was in the granny lane doing about 30-35, hubs locked in, switching in and out of 4x4. The granny lane had recently been plowed, the hammer lane had not.

Toyota pickup passed me in the hammer lane doing 50-55!

5-6 miles down the road, there it was, same Toyota on it's side in the median. I didn't stop, a snowplow and a couple other vehicles had already stopped. Saw quite a few others in the median and off the shoulder, too. I guess folks think that 4x4 will make up for lack of driving skill and common sense.

Yes, they seem to think they're invincible, until the combination of a high CG and stupidity in using BRAKES ON ICE causes them to end up rubber-side up. Every winter here, turn on the news, there's an inverted SUV.

[charby]

I love 4x4 in the winter time, makes driving a little easier but doesn't mean I can drive any faster. I do go out 4x4-ing on side streets before they are plowed. I used to go out and do the same thing in the country but that was when 3 or 4 vehicles were doing incase someone got stuck. We never went very fast just more of a trying to find a road no one had been down yet.