WWTBAM Bored

Thank you.

Sincerely,


The Northeast

We got 13 inches here yesterday.

The weatherman says there is more coming by midweek. Ugh.

ghostjmf wrote:Thank you.

Sincerely,


The Northeast

Word.

They're shutting off the T at 7:00pm tonight. That includes the subway trains, many of which spend much of their route in underground tunnels (hence the term "subway") though they all come aboveground, to profoundly snowed-on, iced-up tracks at some point. Still, some of the worst problems have been underground, due to iced-up switches, & of course many of the trains are over 30 years old. The T has been running at a deficit for years because of a legal boondoggle that drains $$ from it to pay the debt left by the Big Dig. Which dug the tunnels for the former (elevated) Northeast Expressway. Which is all about cars, not public transportation.

Slightly off-topic but as a non-Boston type just wondering:

1. Is the Big Dig finished?

2. Has it helped things?

We now return to our original thread, joined in progress to mention that the NWS is predicting two more storms currently heading towards the North East.

Big Dig was finished long ago. There was too-old cement used in the tunnels by a firm that conveniently went out of business after a chunk of said cement fell on car & killed a person. There is water in the tunnels after every significant rain & snowstorm. Typical Boston stuff.


Tunnels have only helped in that the elevated highway they replaced would have soon started collapsing, killing even more people. The rejuvenation of neighborhoods due to surface land & access to the rest of Boston gained by the removal of the elevated highway mostly hasn't happened, that I can see, except in the ritzy, heavily funded former port area.

And part of the overall Dig expense covered the building of a bridge (Zakim Memorial) that is absolutely gorgeous, & now shows up as "instant Boston identifying landmark" on various newscasts. But it was only redesigned to be the stunner it is after vehement protests from citizens in Charlestown & Chelsea, who would have to look at it every day, about the hideous original design.

ghostjmf wrote:And part of the overall Dig expense covered the building of a bridge (Zakim Memorial) that is absolutely gorgeous, & now shows up as "instant Boston identifying landmark" on various newscasts. But it was only redesigned to be the stunner it is after vehement protests from citizens in Charlestown & Chelsea, who would have to look at it every day, about the hideous original design.

That bridge is gorgeous. It seems as if it was seen in every episode of "Leverage" until they changed the setting to Portland. I've seen it a lot in another show, too. I'm guessing that's "Rizzoli & Isles," since they seem to feature a lot of city shots.

T mgr resigning. After being badmouthed for days by the new Repub governor, who emphasizes "people have to get to work" above their safety getting there. Mgr just got a vote of confidence from the board they report to. On which said gov has 1 seat. Reportedly gov & mgr never spoke directly to each other during all this. People who think like Charles Baker, the new gov, are still badmouthing Michael Dukakis, the Dem gov during the blizzard of 78, for shutting Boston & adjoining areas down until support systems could recover & some of the snow could be moved, because, of course, businesses lost money while closed.

Mr. Baker finally did deploy the national guard to do some snow removal.

And I finally put a chair in the spot I had shovelled. After some bozoid who doesn't live anywhere near here "reserved" it with *their* chair the other day. Which I seethed at, but respected. So today I got back from a necessary car trip (yes, I do have a low tire, but no one would do more for it today than put in air) to find they'd removed *my* chair & parked in my space again. I'm 2 blocks away in a space that will be a "no parking zone" when the next snows, due Friday, a little, & Saturday, predicted could be a lot, fall.

Many towns are keeping schools closed all week. This is not designed as "nyah-nyah" to the gov, but because lots of schools' roofs have too much snow, & there have been many roof collapses around here. None of schools yet, thank G-d.

I convinced landlord to send roofer to clear off the roof I live under, but by the time they get here either the snow will have melted its way into causing another leak or I'll just be (oof) suddenly flatter.

They're telling people to rat out neighbors who haven't shovelled their sidewalks. Which sounds over-evil but these really are dangerous.

Husband1111 saw a police escorted long line of snow removal type equipment heading north on I-95 yesterday. He was traveling south bound so was unable to see any license plates. He said it was all neon green equipment including front end loaders on flat beds, etc.

Gov said he was both buying new & borrowing from other states snow removal equipment. About a week & a half after he should have, in my opinion. I wondered "which other states near here don't need it themselves right now" but I guess now I know.

I just belatedly read a Time article about NYC closing their transit system in anticipation of the 1st big storm of this lot, which it turns out missed them after all. Better safe than sorry, I'd say.

Turns out my tire did have a nail in it. I believe, but didn't notate at the time, this is the same tire that a diff gas station, who lied (I believe I can tell) yesterday about their compressor being frozen "so they can't make repairs" told me last summer "that nail isn't really in the tire deep enough to cause a leak, trust us, we know". I thought I'd pulled that one out though. Who knows.

Station that did today's fix tells me I need new suspension. Regular garage, who I do not go to for flats because they charge high regular rate they charge for more difficult things, has not told me that, so I will run it by them.

ghostjmf wrote:Gov said he was both buying new & borrowing from other states snow removal equipment. About a week & a half after he should have, in my opinion. I wondered "which other states near here don't need it themselves right now" but I guess now I know.

I just belatedly read a Time article about NYC closing their transit system in anticipation of the 1st big storm of this lot, which it turns out missed them after all. Better safe than sorry, I'd say.

Turns out my tire did have a nail in it. I believe, but didn't notate at the time, this is the same tire that a diff gas station, who lied (I believe I can tell) yesterday about their compressor being frozen "so they can't make repairs" told me last summer "that nail isn't really in the tire deep enough to cause a leak, trust us, we know". I thought I'd pulled that one out though. Who knows.

Station that did today's fix tells me I need new suspension. Regular garage, who I do not go to for flats because they charge high regular rate they charge for more difficult things, has not told me that, so I will run it by them.

I'm betting the bad rear tire, with only maybe 15 lbs of air in it, explains why it took me an hour to back out of my icy driveway yesterday. I'd be better off backing into the driveway in the 1st place, since my car is front-wheel drive anyway, but that takes more chutzpah (really holds up traffic, & requires driving into driveway across street to get "aim") than I have right now. Jockeying out of the driveway did not do good things to the clutch, even though I never let it get above 3,000rpm, & I'm betting the wear on the tire may be as much from it being a flattish tire as from me having a bad suspension.


The problem is, I'm so OCD about tire pressure I have to stop myself from measuring it if I'm not at an air pump. A pump at a station where the compressor is working. Otherwise I just let air out of a maybe-already flattish tire. The thing is, radials always look flattish to me. I'm old enough to remember those other tires. Sigh.

Bob Juch wrote:

And I thought Dante's ninth circle was fictional

Recent news stories have said we should look to Chicago for instruction in how to keep trains running through this stuff. Not to Dante.


But whatever.