Good morning!!!!

txdon · Oct 31, 2013

I think I'll go shopping for a Subaru later. My road building abilities are no better than the County's.

JDgreen227 · Oct 31, 2013

300UGUY said:
Congrats!! Life is good, I can't imagine going back to, you know, that 4 letter word that begins with "W".

"Work"? I thought for a minute you meant "Wife" :laughing: :laughing:

ronjhall · Oct 31, 2013

txdon said:
I think I'll go shopping for a Subaru later. My road building abilities are no better than the County's.

While your Prius is a great car. I would think you should be looking for a vehicle with a little more road clearance. A Subaru SUV would be a good choice.

txdon · Oct 31, 2013

The official rainfall for the 24 hour period is 4.19" with most all of it in the last 5 hours.....and it is still raining.

toppop52 · Oct 31, 2013

54 now, low 70's later, rain tonight and tomorrow.

Larro Darro · Oct 31, 2013

Good Morning. 0700, clear, 64* with 97% humidity. Forecast high of 82 with a 20% chance of rain. All you folks in Texas are getting it by the bucketfuls this morning. Stay safe.

Another day of office relief for me. We used to do a lot of grant work, and you have to keep the files for a certain number of years. That time has passed, and my boss is going through the old files that were stored in one of the equipment rooms. {the phone won't work because of the brick walls, thus the need for me to man the office} Once she looks through a box, the cleaning guys are taking them to the burn pit for a bonfire. They should have done this last week when it was cold so they could enjoy the fire.

Larro

txdon · Oct 31, 2013

ronjhall said:
While your Prius is a great car. I would think you should be looking for a vehicle with a little more road clearance. A Subaru SUV would be a good choice.

I test drove a RAV4 yesterday and while sufficient in every aspect I was not overly impressed. The Forester has more ground clearance to go over the turtles and dead armadillos but I have not driven one yet. Roy has a Subaru so they have to be good.

deerseeker001 · Oct 31, 2013

it looks like another wet and dreary day 50 this morning warming to 54 today.

Larro Darro · Oct 31, 2013

txdon said:
I test drove a RAV4 yesterday and while sufficient in every aspect I was not overly impressed. The Forester has more ground clearance to go over the turtles and dead armadillos but I have not driven one yet. Roy has a Subaru so they have to be good.

Don, just make sure you really like it before you buy your Subaru. From what I hear, you will be driving it a long, long time. I looked hard at the Outback, but got a deal I couldn't turn down on the Camry. The one drawback {for me} is the higher revs on Subaru's means more engine noise.

Larro

Kyle_in_Tex · Oct 31, 2013

TxDon, I think the worst of it is over for you as far as rain falling. Now flooding is another subject.
We are still in the thick of rainfall, and it looks like it may continue another hour.

RoyJackson · Oct 31, 2013

2013-10-31, 0825

Happy Halloween, all

31 right now and a high of 61 predicted. 70% chance of rain.

Got the wire rope off my Gator's winch yesterday and replaced it with a 2" wide webbed strap. I was told by the guy who sold me the plow that there is a lot of wear on the wire rope when plowing...and all the wear is on the 4-5 feet closest to the hook.
I've also got a pretty foul cold coming on...boy, that's great.

Might have a contract job in the next week or so. The hourly rate is OK, but not fantastic....it'll be OK if the hours come through. The last contract job I did for this company cost me money since the actual hours were considerably less then initially expected. IF the job comes through AND the hours are there, it should last about 8 months, which will cover us until Spring 2014.

dave1949 · Oct 31, 2013

txdon said:
I think I'll go shopping for a Subaru later. My road building abilities are no better than the County's.

LOL! You really expect a lot from clay and sand with 4-5 inches of rain.

The DIL had a Subaru Outback for many years and when she shopped for a replacement last year her opinion was the interiors were not as nice as they used to be.

Subaru does a good business around New England with their AWD. They are not great for gas mileage, but "getting there" in winter overrides that drawback for most.

RoyJackson · Oct 31, 2013

dave1949 said:
Subaru does a good business around New England with their AWD. They are not great for gas mileage, but "getting there" in winter overrides that drawback for most.

Very true...my 2004 Outback got me across some treacherous roads last winter. In fact, it did better then my F-150 4x4.
The fuel economy isn't that bad for what they are...basically a smaller SUV.

daugen · Oct 31, 2013

wu wu wu wu wu wu wu wuuuooooooorrrrrrrk!

dave1949 · Oct 31, 2013

RoyJackson said:
Very true...my 2004 Outback got me across some treacherous roads last winter. In fact, it did better then my F-150 4x4.
The fuel economy isn't that bad for what they are...basically a smaller SUV.

True. Any AWD or 4WD is never going to top the mpg charts.

Sometimes in winter driving into town I could swear Subaru's are 50% of the cars I see on the road.

Our '07 Ford Explorer Sport Trac has been a good winter car. It has 4X4 you can manually engage with a push button on the console. I like that better than some of the "intelligent" AWD systems that don't give the driver that option. Some, like the '01 GMC van we had, were so intelligent they would wait until you are stuck before engaging the AWD. :laughing:

Don't know how they are in mud, it's been a great snow car. Four doors, seats four, plus the little exterior cargo space is great for getting diesel fuel, dump runs, etc. They are fairly expensive vehicles though and the mpg tops out around 20.5, more like 17 in local winter driving.

RoyJackson · Oct 31, 2013

dave1949 said:
True. Any AWD or 4WD is never going to top the mpg charts.

Sometimes in winter driving into town I could swear Subaru's are 50% of the cars I see on the road.

Don't know how they are in mud, it's been a great snow car. Four doors, seats four, plus the little exterior cargo space is great for getting diesel fuel, dump runs, etc. They are fairly expensive vehicles though and the mpg tops out around 20.5, more like 17 in local winter driving.

Not only are they 50% of the cars on the road, the majority are the same color (a pukey metallic green).

My Suby has a tow hook on the lower front end (just inboard of the right side fog lamp). I had to use it one time in 2010 when we got a double whammy snowstorm...hooked it up to my 790 and towed the Suby out of a snow bank.

toppop52 · Oct 31, 2013

daugen said:
wu wu wu wu wu wu wu wuuuooooooorrrrrrrk!

(Maynard G Krebs)

toppop52 · Oct 31, 2013

I can't get my wife out of her Pacifica because of the room, traction, mpg combo it has. Remarkable in the snow for an AWD with 17" performance tires. She has 176,000 miles, still runs as new, beautiful deep maroon paint and cream leather interior still looks new. A far cry from Chrysler of old. She gets 21+ overall, which isn't bad for a totally loaded 4000 lb crossover with 255 h.p. I think she's finally going to buy an SRX when she finally gets around to it.

toppop52 · Oct 31, 2013

Our daughter in law drives a 2011 Outback, she and my son commute to their offices in Northern Virginia daily so it already has 85000 miles in 2+ years. They seem happy with the car. Sometimes my son has to drive separately, suffice it to say that his 2013 Wrangler Unlimited with off road bumpers, huge winch, 35" tires doesn't get great MPG.

jinman · Oct 31, 2013

txdon said:
I test drove a RAV4 yesterday and while sufficient in every aspect I was not overly impressed. The Forester has more ground clearance to go over the turtles and dead armadillos but I have not driven one yet. Roy has a Subaru so they have to be good.

I'm very fond of the CRV. Of course, they are so popular that they hold a high value. That's both the good and bad news.