A Five Mile Walk in the Snow

[silverscreenselect]

Well, it had been several years since we had a really messy snowstorm, so we got hit hard yesterday. Usually, Atlanta handles things fairly well when the snow falls at night, because most people get home after work and stay home the next morning until the roads get cleared, but when the snow hits during a weekday, it can be a mess.

Back in 1982, the city was shut down for the better part of a week when a bad mid-afternoon storm hit, and yesterday the same thing happened. In 1982, there were extremely cold temperatures (near zero) the weekend before the snow hit so it froze as soon as it hit the ground, but it had been in the 40s and 50s here on Monday so I wasn't too worried. When they announced they were closing our office at 1, I thought it was the usual abundance of caution so didn't leave until a few minutes before 1. Bad move.

This was a horrible mess. We are in an office building on a side street that feeds into a four-lane highway that after a mile ends in a pair of access roads that parallel I-285 for about a mile until the nearest entrance. Taking the shortest route, it's about 5.5 miles from my office to my home. But when I got to the four-lane highway, it was jam packed and it took me one hour to get one block... literally. I got as far as the end of the four-lane highway but it took 2 1/2 hours and I realized that I probably wasn't going to have enough gas to get home. So, I parked the car in a small, strip shopping center and walked the rest of the way in the snow (I did stop once for coffee at a McDonald's that was open, but all the tables were full so I got my coffee and moved on. They were selling the coffee for a dollar, and I don't know if that was a regular promotion or just something they came up with on the spur of the moment due to the snow). Up until the last 3/4 of a mile, the side streets were all jammed as well (traffic on I-285 seemed to be moving a bit faster because it's eight lanes and the side streets the rest of the way were all two-lane.

Needless to say, Mrs. SSS was worried. I work out at our gym and do about a 3-mile workout there, so I wasn't so much worried about getting worn out as having a car skid and hit me, although I was staying on sidewalks when there were sidewalks. I shouldn't have worried, because to skid you actually have to be moving and the cars weren't doing much moving. Our daughter, who lives with us and is working about four miles from our home (in another direction) also left work about 1 and got home only a few minutes before I did. All told, it took me just under five hours from the time a left work until I got home.

I didn't have it as bad as a of people who never made it home, including a lot of school kids who spent the night in their schools. A lot of schools didn't close until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and by then the busses couldn't move and parents couldn't get to the kids to pick them up. Look for schools to overact the next time there's even a hint of possible snow.

[macrae1234]

and people wonder why I moved to AZ with the summer heat. While my hometown does a much better job and is infinitely better prepared there have been some occasions, maybe once every 5 years or so, when a bad storm hit and I had to walk home

[kayrharris]

Glad you and your daughter are home and safe, Steve.

It is a mess out there.

kay

[littlebeast13]

Glad you and your daughter are home and safe, Steve.

It is a mess out there.

kay

Ahem... where is that snowplow ES lent you last month?

lb13

[BackInTex]

Look for schools to overact the next time there's even a hint of possible snow.

Happened here yesterday. All schools cancelled Monday night, then Tuesday the winter storm warning became an advisory. Didn't get below freezing until around 10:00 AM and then the only precip lasted about 1 or 2 hours then back above freezing until 8:00 PM or so. My commute home was better than it is over Christmas.

I am concerned about your carbon footprint from yesterday. Idling your car until almost out of gas, then huffing and puffing for 5 hours. You my friend had better plant a tree this spring.

[kayrharris]

Glad you and your daughter are home and safe, Steve.

It is a mess out there.

kay

Ahem... where is that snowplow ES lent you last month?

lb13

Snow plow???

kay

[Bob Juch]

They shut-down schools today and my office didn't open until 10:00. I'm working from home while waiting for an exterminator.

Here's the results of our blizzard:



That's less than two inches.

[Bob78164]

The title of this thread reminds me of a Harry Kemelman (author of the Rabbi David Small mysteries) story that I once read, "The Nine-Mile Walk," which centered around the overheard sentence, "A nine-mile walk is no joke, especially in the rain." --Bob

[silverscreenselect]

The title of this thread reminds me of a Harry Kemelman (author of the Rabbi David Small mysteries) story that I once read, "The Nine-Mile Walk," which centered around the overheard sentence, "A nine-mile walk is no joke, especially in the rain." --Bob

I'm impressed that someone else remembers that story. That's how I came up with the title of the thread.

[Bob78164]

The title of this thread reminds me of a Harry Kemelman (author of the Rabbi David Small mysteries) story that I once read, "The Nine-Mile Walk," which centered around the overheard sentence, "A nine-mile walk is no joke, especially in the rain." --Bob

I'm impressed that someone else remembers that story. That's how I came up with the title of the thread.

(because there's no icon for blushing) --Bob

[Bob Juch]

The news just showed people being interviewed in Atlanta who had been stuck in their cars on a highway for over eight hours.

[Bob Juch]

http://www.today.com/moms/it-was-beauti ... 2D12014602

[ghostjmf]

SSS, I'm glad you got home safely. But a comment on what you said about needing to be driving at some speed to actually skid; I know you meant it in jest, but I am alive today only by a fluke, & the skid I survived I went into when the traffic was going 12 miles an hour.

It was a patch of ice on an interstate, my car spun around, completely out of control, & headed under a freight-hauling truck. "Decorative" hub cap spikes (the kind that if you complain about them being spikes, you're too damn close to the truck tires) on the truck's rear tire I was headed towards got caught under my rear bumper, spun me around again & deposited me across the highway, pointed in the direction I should have been going. I was able to get the now stalled-out car (a stick shift) started & over to the side.

A few minutes later, while I was still trying to figure out "what looked wrong about my car", another truck pulled up, carrying my bumper; all that was left on the back of my car was the "real bumper" bar that had been under the crap, breakaway bumper-cover. Except it wasn't crap in this case because if it had been a real, old-style strong bumper I might not have made it.


In those days before cell phones, truckers' CB put in a report to the state police, & we waited something like 4 or 5 hours for them to appear. They told us both that because no-one was hurt & the vehicles were both still driveable, they weren't going to file a report & we should call our respective insurance companies, which we did. They said it took them so long to arrive because they'd been attending to a massive pile-up a few miles back on that or some related road, where people were severely injured.


I'm so glad I didn't cause a pile-up like that; in the seconds it took the accident to occur, after I determined I wasn't going to die after all, I was afraid I was going to cause something like that, but no pile-up occurred around us.


I feel so bad for the kids & everybody else down south who had to sleep in their cars overnight. Unlike me, & probably other people up here in the frozen north, they probably don’t carry 3 sleeping bags in their trunk.

And it sounds like it was deathly cold.

[kusch]

Glad you and I think most others are safe. Believe me, I know the pitfalls of dealing with a storm. How cold was/is it? Do you have problems with frozen pipes or garden hoses still hooked up and the temps dip way below freezing?

[silverscreenselect]

Glad you and I think most others are safe. Believe me, I know the pitfalls of dealing with a storm. How cold was/is it? Do you have problems with frozen pipes or garden hoses still hooked up and the temps dip way below freezing?

Monday was fairly warm, in the 50s, and when I drove into work at 9 yesterday it wasn't bad, but the snow came in about 11. At that time it was in the low 20s and it got down to around 10 degrees last night. It's still only in the mid 20s now and it probably won't warm up enough to melt ice until tomorrow.

I could probably drive our other car to where mine is parked during the day today, but then Mrs. SSS would need to drive home, and I don't want to risk having her try that.

We live in a condo and they had freeze warning, leave your faucets dripping warnings at all the complexes I passed by yesterday during my sojourn.

What was kind of neat was that I had ice frozen on my moustache when I got home, and I was reminded of the scene in The Great Race where Peter Falk breaks off Jack Lemmon's moustache.

[Bob Juch]

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

When the roads are impassable due to ice the government has once again demonstrated it is not up the the task. Chick fil a on the other hand...

[bazodee]

But was your five mile walk uphill?

It was almost humorous watching the press conferences this morning. Overly eager reporters trying to get someone to accept blame. Hapless politicians, well, just being hapless. I think the consensus was to blame the party that wasn't in the room- the National Weather Service.

[Estonut]

SSS, you need better friends...

[Bob Juch]

When the roads are impassable due to ice the government has once again demonstrated it is not up the the task. Chick fil a on the other hand...

How many roads did they plow?

[Bob Juch]

But was your five mile walk uphill?

It was almost humorous watching the press conferences this morning. Overly eager reporters trying to get someone to accept blame. Hapless politicians, well, just being hapless. I think the consensus was to blame the party that wasn't in the room- the National Weather Service.

Actually the mayor of Atlanta said they made a mistake in releasing everyone at once.

The actual problem was that they waited too late to release people. They should have cancelled school completely on Tuesday and encouraged companies to close too. By the time people started going home the roads were getting bad and there were accidents all over the Interstates.

[Bob Juch]