Just One of THOSE Days

[bpence]

Anyone ever have one of THOSE days. Saturday was one for me.

Went out Saturday afternoon to grab the B7100 & trailer to haul some brush I had been clearing from an old fence row back in the woods. I walked into the barn and there sat the Kubota with a flat front tire. No big deal I thought. I got the tire off and quickly found the offending roofing nail. I plugged the hole, re-inflated the tire and jumped on to get going.

Since it was real cold (low 20's), I hit the pre-heater, waited, turned the key and only heard a long low growl before total silence. Situation analysis: dead battery. Naturally I had the tractor parked in the barn beside the camper and couldn't get a jump vehicle close enough, and I don't remember who borrowed the battery charger, so, off to get a new battery. 2 hours later (my wife wanted to grocery shop as long as I was headed to town) and I finally got the tractor started. The battery was 5 years old, so I didn't feel all that bad.

Since it was now 4:30 and nearing dark, I figured tomorrow was a better day to move brush and I might as well change the oil on the Kubota...at least accomplish something for the afternoon. After warming the engine for a few minutes, I backed it into the barn and grabbed the oil drain pan. It was cold and as I removed the oil filter it slipped from my hand, bounced off the front tire and landed, standing upright and draining oil, on my right leg (I was kneeling on one knee by the tractor). Now I'm covered with splattered oil, got a filter leaking all over me and the barn floor. Fortunately an oil filter only holds a pint or so.

So, I took stock of my situation. I wiped as much oil off me and the floor as I could, threw down some kitty litter on the spill, finished the oil change, and went up to the house. I was instructed by the queen of the mansion to remove the oily jeans, socks, boots, etc. in the garage before coming in the house. Lucky for me the temperature was only in the low 20's as I removed the jeans, socks, and boots on a cement floor and I didn't shiver for too long once allowed into the house.

Finally, I sat down with a beer and thought through the events of the afternoon. Actually, the whole situation could have been worse, I reasoned...................I could have been out of beer.

Bob Pence

 

[scruffy]

Bob,
Just goes to show, there ain't nuttin wrong with your logic!
Hope today's better!

 

[Bird]

Sounds like a perfectly normal day to me, Bob./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif But it really would have been a bad day if you'd been out of beer. You make me feel bad that I was just bemoaning the fact that I had to mow the yard, clean up, and grease the mower, sweep out the shop, etc. with temperature in the 30s yesterday./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I had one of those days on Monday, November 20.

I left my house, east of Buffalo, NY, about 3:30 PM to pick up my wife at the school where she teaches. I wound up spending the night on the New York State Thruway at westbound milepost 418 and some change. I had plenty of company; the NY State Police estimated there were approximately 1000 vehicles in the same situation. Apparently, a tractor-trailer jack-knifed about 1-1/4 miles ahead of me, and it could not be moved until morning (all expressways and many secondary roads were grid-locked by then due to snow falling at 3" per hour, total accumulation between 24" and 30". Amazing amounts of thunder and lightning until the storm stopped around 11:30 PM). I ran my engine no more than twenty minutes of every hour, and only slept with the engine off. I filled all containers in the car with snow so I would have water if I needed it. I found a radio station that took calls from stranded motorists all night long and felt a lot better after hearing from people all over. My wife managed to call my cell phone twice during the evening (all cells and most land-line exchanges were jammed). All her students got home so she went home with a friend/co-worker who lives 2 blocks from the school.

After sunrise, I could see where I was, and realized that there was a bar about 2/10's of a mile from where I was parked. Some people around me had no serious clothing. I had waterproof insulated boots, several layers of clothing including a polar fleece and Gortex jacket, a snow shovel and basic tools. I dug my vehicle out, and started on those around me. I offered my shovel to anyone who wanted to dig themselves out. One guy said he was "too old, and too cold to dig", but gave me two handfuls of chocolate chip cookies for digging him and his wife out. By this time another guy with a shovel had a bunch of guys digging, and we had 2 dozen vehicles around us free to move once the obstacles ahead were clear. By 11:30 AM the Thruway Authority had cleared enough snow and vehicles out that we were rolling. It took me about 2-1/2 hours to reach my wife, although it was less than 3 miles as the crow flies. Some neighborhood streets were partially cleared, but all of the major and secondary roads were moving very slowly. There were abandoned vehicles everywhere (it looked a lot like the pictures of the Iraqi tanks after Desert Storm). Lots of two-way streets were operating as one-way, with Fire Dept. and neighborhood volunteers directing traffic. I stopped frequently and helped dig and push stuck vehicles out (I like to think I am a nice guy, but it was also the only way to proceed). It only took us about 1-1/2 hours to get home.

There were 5 or 6 inches of snow in my driveway, which is on a hill. I drove right up and into the garage.

 

[bpence]

Dave, after reading about one of THOSE days you had, I'm thinking this past Saturday was an absolutely fantastic day for me.

No doubt about it. You had a bad day. The rest of us didn't.

Bob Pence

 

[MarkV]

Bob, not to take anything away from your bad day, I think Dave gets the grand prize. After Dave's 24 hours on the road (without the beer) I am not even going to tell my story.

 

[Bird]

I'll have to admit, I laughed at Bob's day; tough, frustrating, uncomfortable, make you use bad language, etc., but Dave's day was scary. We saw some of that snowstorm on the TV news even down here in Texas. If I lived in country where that could happen (heaven forbid), I'd definitely carry a "survival kit" like we carried in small planes in Alaska, and even driving in Alaska.

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Guys, it really wasn't THAT bad. The temperature was just a few degrees below freezing. If it had been the middle of January it would probably have been 20 degrees colder, and then some people might have been in real trouble.

We joked about how, "In two or three days, we'll be eating the weak ones," but none of us really believed it. The worst problems anybody faced that I was aware of was lack of food and sanitary facilities, and one or two people ran out of gas because they ran their engine too much.

I have decided to start keeping some food in the car, though.

 

[Thomas]

Bob,
You didn't mention how dinner went. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Thomas]

Bird,
Being the yard boss plus having a shop tells us about one of your days./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Wait I need to go and get a coffee first before reading it. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif