Rant; Winter 2013/14

[lukethedrifter]

Just dropped off wife at airport for trip to S Florida. 16F, snowy and blustery here.

[lukethedrifter]

still waiting to take off. missed connecting flight

[cardinalkarp]

Traffic this morning was the worst I've ever seen....took me 2 hours to go a normal 35 min drive....it was taking people an hour & forty min to go 10 miles on hwy 40, which is even worse then my drive. The roads were terrible, highways were literally sheets of ice...I'm not sure if 15 degrees is too cold for chemicals/salt to work, but MoDOT did a [expletive] job.

[Molly]

City streets weren't too bad. Only took about 20 minutes to get from south city to downtown.

[lukethedrifter]

My wife's car sucks in the snow and the roads were nasty but I was able to negotiate them without too much trouble. Had to pick up a friend of hers in Town and Country on the way. Glad T&C cleared the roads b/c I'm not sure her car could have negotiated the hill otherwise.

My own rant on winter weather driving: People [expletive] about winter weather drivers. Someone surely would have [expletive] that I was driving to slow while someone else would have [expletive] that I was driving too fast.

The roads are [expletive]. Stay out of the ditches and don't lose control.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

MoDOT did a [expletive] job.

AHTD, Arkansas' version of MoDOT, sent out a press release earlier this year basically saying:

We know the roads have been [expletive]. That is our bad. At the same time, we are dealing with an increase in adverse weather effects that we are not accustomed to and don't have the budget to combat. We are working with our northern neighboring states, namely MoDOT, in ways to efficiently and effectively clear roads and prevent poor conditions.

They went on to list things they are trying to do, have done and machinery they have purchased and are awaiting delivery. One of the things was a towplow which seems pretty awesome.


I know that doesn't help you on your way to work, but Missouri isn't the only state who has had problems this winter.

Here's a pretty sweet video of a towplow complete with some gopro cameras.

[/youtube]

[Jocephus]

my bro got his phd in fayetteville, so he was there about 5 years. he said that place freaked out over heavy rains but snow was almost impossible for them to do anything. we grew up in kansas so its not like we have experience we heavy heavy snows/winters but we get a bad snow from time to time but i remember him commenting on how terrible roads could be down there during winter months.

[cardinalkarp]

My wife's car sucks in the snow and the roads were nasty but I was able to negotiate them without too much trouble. Had to pick up a friend of hers in Town and Country on the way. Glad T&C cleared the roads b/c I'm not sure her car could have negotiated the hill otherwise.

My own rant on winter weather driving: People [expletive] about winter weather drivers. Someone surely would have [expletive] that I was driving to slow while someone else would have [expletive] that I was driving too fast.

The roads are [expletive]. Stay out of the ditches and don't lose control.

I had no problem w/ how people were driving today. There's no way to negotiate the way a car will drive on ice (which was EVERYWHERE)....driving over 20 mph w/ the conditions on the highways would have led to wrecks everywhere (more than what there were).

[Freed Roger]

School notified us they'd be starting an hour late, so we were able to roll with it and slept in. Refreshing. Not being tired and letting the sun come up works magic.

Saw in the paper on Sunday that the record low (Negative 14) for that date was in 1940 - the day my Dad was born. (probably even colder up north where he was).

I mentioned this to my sister, and she laughed, recalling how our Grandpa once told her it was cold walking the couple of miles to the hospital find out he had a son, our Dad. No idea how Grandma made it to the hospital already or how they worked all that out.

Made me ponder how our ancestors dealt with bad weather and life situations. They didn't even have North Face! They were sort of poor then, I surmise they did have a vehicle but it wouldn't start. Not sure if they had their own phone or not.

My wife's farm family by St. Joe MO -they've dealt with it for generations - cutting ice so the cattle can get to water, bringing them to shelter etc etc.

There was a winter storm around the time of her Grandma's funeral. They rolled with it - cranking up the old heater in the pre-Civil War era one room church (tried to GIS a pic, but it's off the grid). The folk from the area packed it. My little girl was feeling ill during the funeral service, and I took her outside for air. Everything blanketed in fresh white. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful.

[IndyCards13]

I love how awesome everything looks with the fresh snow on it, but the snow is a hassle. We've had way TOO MUCH this winter. As soon as we get rid of the snow, we get another round of snow. I'm ready for spring.