Who needs a fricken gym membership?

The main roads are fine, the side streets are kinda crappy, still. No where near like the video--damn, someone needs to get to that street with a shitload of sand and salt!!!

We had two sub-zero nights that would freeze the hair off your head, but it's slowly warming. We're supposed to get some freezing rain, whee--but hopefully it won't stay frozen for too long.

San Francisco on most of the streets and you'll see why it gets out of hand. That wasn't that much of an incline there. Note the bus was replaced and another one came along to get the passengers and take them on their way.

Often huge towing trucks come along and get them going again, and they go very fast up and down to get them to flatter streets. And so many people in Seattle walk everywhere, no matter what the weather, some don't even have vehicles or driver licenses. A lot go out in weather like that in shorts and t-shirts.

I've walked the steep downtown sidewalks going uphill and the pavement is not that far from your face. Other times in a vehicle facing uphill, the back of your seat feels like you are laying down.

And then there are the mountains with the passes and the skiing. It's not for the old and feeble. We have a lot of very hardy old seniors who manage just fine.

to good safe exercise that's a twofer, MADem!

Damn! I did not hear that one.

My concern has been staying at warm at work... not an easy thing. We freeze are butts off there.

is forecast for tonight. Monday calls for 51 degrees and rain, then the temp. will drop to 12. Now that is going to be one hell of a mess, black ice! Tuesday will be 14 degrees during the day.

The crazy thing is, Friday we had that delayed opening and schools were called off. Well even before the roads were passable, there were mothers at the mall with small children in tow. Okay, so a recap. Schools are closed for the children's safety and mothers bring them to the mall, go figure. What is wrong with people?

Thanks for this thread, freshwest~

Yeah, seems some have lots to burn.

Oh no! I was in the middle of responding to you when the lights went out. Damn! I hope we don't lose power.

It's cold tonight. Well only 36, not as bad as it has been. I was at work then went to meet a few friends tonight, so my heat has been set at low. I just turned it up a bit when the lights came back on. I figured I would try to get the temp in my apartment up in case we lose it again!

Old man winter is not amusing this year~

freshwest

You are a breath of fresh air my dear~

As for old man winter~







Stay safe and warm, freshwest!

Damn cold.

I am home and it is not bad, heat is on low, yet okay.

Thanks for the vid. I did some slip sliding too.

No package yet~ I will get it soon.





Thank you for caring, freshwest!











Thank you for caring freshwest!

They look like hearty souls. And, the weather maps.

I forgot to mention this in my reply to freshwest but when Cindy got home from NYC to her home in the Adirondacks last night it was -14 degrees! And, she knew there were no pellets in the house for her stove so she went to a store she thought would be open but she missed out. So she and her granddaughter brought a space heater up to her bedroom and settled under tons of blankets!

exhausting day with her car giving out in town, her stove and washing machine not working(which she went online and figured out how to get the new gas stove working, anyway).. but it ended well and she has tomorrow to rest up before she goes back to school on Monday after the Holiday break!

Thanks for your compassion, fresh~

When all else fails...I dive under my down comforter. When my store closed I was able to get one of our display comforters for $35....they retail for $300. Best one I ever had!

I am toasty with it!

Cha!

Divine, she! I love them and had one in New York and it got left there. My landlady had one in my first home on Kaua'i when I came back and I loved it. When I moved to this place I haven't really needed one until last night!

It was a two blanket night first time ever! Brr.. It brought home again though how grateful I am to be living in a warmer year round climate. And, I don't get to complain when it's too bloody hot in the summer!

Cindy lives by a lake in the Adirondacks and all kinds of frozen challenges happen up there in the winter.. and she just carries on like a trooper. She was asking me yesterday, however, when was the best time to visit Hawai'i.

to be safe and warm, she~

to me in Denver(1992) coming home at midnight and fortunately no one else was on the road then, either!

That bus.. ICE is the WORST!! First Responders to the Rescue!

Another snow perspective from 2010.. on my FB page via The O Diary..


Brrr blast from the past for my Northeast friends.. The White House Feb 3, 2010~

My sister left NYC Friday instead of Thursday for the Adirondacks and made it home at 1am because she just had to stop in Cooperstown for a Wedding Anniversay Party of her good friends. Took her 6 hours instead of the usual 4.

Mahalo for your Beware of Ice and Snow Thread, freshwest!

on the Interstate from the Cascades toward Seattle when you couldn't see where the freeway ended and the side of the road with the ditches were. Ugh!

And people with 4X4s can get way too confident. Driving on snow or powder snow is one thing. Driving on ice covered with the coating of powder is still driving on ice. They 4X4s would come racing around the bend and spin out.

They don't stop you from losing control, just let you spin out faster. Lucky to have not gotten hit. We're okayed for studded tires now, but I'm not going to risk it since I don't have to. We've been pretty lucky here by the water, not so bad.

But if we get another Pineapple Express and the vortex moves this way, watch out!

The stories we could tell! I bet that was something driving through Cascades to Seattle.. so scary.. especially when you end in ditch!

My sister has a 4x4 and so does her daughter in NYC.. it helps them a lot but then they don't take chances. One has enough problems in the snow without asking for trouble!

thoughts, too~

And - wahhhh!!! - the ice jam remains in the trap of the pipe where my washing machine empties. Haven't been able to do laundry for days. House is colder in spots than what I'd prefer, though it's amazing what 3 layers of clothing can do.

So I try to remember how comparatively easy I've got it. My nerves might wear a little thin, especially when I make the mistake of watching Sunday political shows, but a little Xanax and behavior change takes care of that. I'm basically okay. Just a little overdue for scrubbing down, and people a hundred years ago only changed clothes once a week if that ... so I'm going to stop whining. The ice jam will work its way out soon enough. No worries about burst pipes since it's an open system. Maybe the non-toxic RV antifreeze I put in there will do some good soon. I've got everything with a faucet on drip, a thermometer under my kitchen sink - the only place next to an outside wall - and no worries about the most important things.

And I think some electric pipe wrap will prevent that in the future. And you have to keep on top of bathing and washing, never know when the power, heat, etc. is going to stop. At times it hits me how vulnerable we are in the cities despite our best efforts to keep things going. Those are the times I long for having my own place again where I can have some control over necessities.

valuable preventive in the future, though. I'd thought buying a little drop-in coil heater would be cheaper than electric pipe wiring, but apparently this time I was penny wise and pound foolish. Someone also told me a plumbers trick of wrapping the pipe in heavy duty tin foil first to help spread the heat around.

Once I've learned the proper routine, things will be fine. It storms like hell here every winter, but after 8 years we've only been w/o power a very few times, and that not for long. Only once did it last several hours. Underground utilities - odd for such an old town - and a local power plant help a lot!

I've even found a new handyman to add to my short list. A blessing indeed. He installed my new dishwasher for only $40. Does everything a house needs. So he might not always be available, but he will always be the first one I call. He makes his main income for the year in 3 months as a unionized construction worker in a town almost 70 miles from here - it's seasonal but carries him the rest of the year and allows him to be merciful with his charges for little old retired ladies needs. I've always wanted to replace the original brick foundation in the front half of the house with poured concrete even though the present one's perfectly okay - for now. But it is a hundred years old. Best to do that before other interior renovations and then I won't ever have to worry. A stitch in time.

very much like my sister's in the Adirondack's, Irish. Her's was only -14 Below

Last edited Wed Jan 8, 2014, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

For several days all my formerly successful methods of dealing with that occasional ice jam came to naught. After a great deal of grief and groaning, I stumbled across a perfect solution: (removed by poster)

Then after that, when really hard freezes loom, I can put half a cup of equally non-toxic RV antifreeze down the drain ahead of time after doing my laundry in big batches instead of spaced out as usual. Means I'll have to run the dryer because there'll be too much to air dry indoors, but that's a small price to pay for clean clothes.

(As a preventive, the non-toxic RV anti-freeze remains a good suggestion during extended periods of heavy freezing. Erase everything I said about de-icing salt - that was a bummer.)

Last edited Wed Jan 8, 2014, 02:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Her trap from the kitchen sink seems to be ice jammed and she's worried.

morning after I clean up and don my last clean outfit, I'll hike the 8-block round trip to the hardware store to buy some. Rash as I can be at times, I am perfectly certain it will work. At least the knot in my stomach has disappeared. It will do me good to be forced out of the house, too, no matter the weather.

Inspired by a montage posted here by Iwillnevergiveup:

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1017245847#op