My State !

[prichard]

I live about an hour north of Atlanta. There are actually some valid reasons why everything goes to crap when it snows here.

• Often when we get snow it then warms slightly so the snow starts to melt then refreezes creating plenty of ice.
• We don't have winter tires, I'm not sure we can even buy them. Most folks have summer tires or maybe all season.
• I've driven plenty in northern states with real snow. The snow here is different. It's like a bunch of tiny ice cubes - it does not pack and allow traction like anywhere up north I've driven.
• We have very little equipment to deal with the roads. I for one am not interested in my county investing huge amounts of money in equipment that may get used once or twice a year.

We got about 1-2" Friday night. Currently the streets are all pretty much clear - have been since Sat/Sun. I still cannot get up my driveway. I parked my truck at the bottom Friday night. My driveway has a 30 degree slope and is about 50' long and faces north. It is now a layer of snow and ice. I used a concrete safe ice melt a couple years ago the pitted the driveway bad so I now just wait for nature to resolve. It is supposed to be high 50s today and a low of only 45 so it'll be gone soon.

 

[aczlan]

I live about an hour north of Atlanta. There are actually some valid reasons why everything goes to crap when it snows here.

• Often when we get snow it then warms slightly so the snow starts to melt then refreezes creating plenty of ice.
• We don't have winter tires, I'm not sure we can even buy them. Most folks have summer tires or maybe all season.
• I've driven plenty in northern states with real snow. The snow here is different. It's like a bunch of tiny ice cubes - it does not pack and allow traction like anywhere up north I've driven.
• We have very little equipment to deal with the roads. I for one am not interested in my county investing huge amounts of money in equipment that may get used once or twice a year.

We got about 1-2" Friday night. Currently the streets are all pretty much clear - have been since Sat/Sun. I still cannot get up my driveway. I parked my truck at the bottom Friday night. My driveway has a 30 degree slope and is about 50' long and faces north. It is now a layer of snow and ice. I used a concrete safe ice melt a couple years ago the pitted the driveway bad so I now just wait for nature to resolve. It is supposed to be high 50s today and a low of only 45 so it'll be gone soon.

I know what you mean. I live in Upstate NY, but lived west of Atlanta as a teenager. The roads and driveways there are not built with snow and ice in mind.
Entertainingly, we had a neighbor call Child Protective Services on us after a snowstorm. IIRC 1-2" of snow had fallen the day before, then us weird NY country kids went out the next day (when it was in the 40s) to cut up a small tree in the front yard that the storm had taken out without any coats on, so we obviously didn't have any coats, shoes, electric power or beds (said neighbor had never been in the house since we moved in and was wrong on all counts).

Aaron Z

 

[prichard]

I know what you mean. I live in Upstate NY, but lived west of Atlanta as a teenager. The roads and driveways there are not built with snow and ice in mind.
Entertainingly, we had a neighbor call Child Protective Services on us after a snowstorm. IIRC 1-2" of snow had fallen the day before, then us weird NY country kids went out the next day (when it was in the 40s) to cut up a small tree in the front yard that the storm had taken out without any coats on, so we obviously didn't have any coats, shoes, electric power or beds (said neighbor had never been in the house since we moved in and was wrong on all counts).

Aaron Z

Well sending kids out without coats in 40 degree weather sounds like child abuse to me.

 

[aczlan]

Well sending kids out without coats in 40 degree weather sounds like child abuse to me.

Sending them out? We had just moved from Upstate NY and us kids chose not to wear them because it was so warm out
IIRC, it was right after Christmas end my brother had received a bow saw that he wanted to try out.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

Regarding school closings, around here, they don't close public schools for heavy snow because, unfortunately, many kids' (sometimes most in some schools) ONLY food for the day comes from the free breakfast and lunch served at school. If they don't go to school, they don't eat. They only close for extreme cold, because many kids (again, sometimes most in some schools) don't have winter clothing and will suffer frostbite.

 

[prichard]

That's sad

 

[MossRoad]

That's sad

Yeah, it is. True, but sad. I think the law here is something like, if X% of the school is composed of kids from families below the poverty line, the entire school gets free breakfast and lunch. And its quite a few schools that qualify for 100% free meals. Summertime parks programs provide free lunches when school is out.

 

[aczlan]

Yeah, it is. True, but sad. I think the law here is something like, if X% of the school is composed of kids from families below the poverty line, the entire school gets free breakfast and lunch. And its quite a few schools that qualify for 100% free meals. Summertime parks programs provide free lunches when school is out.

They do that at our local library in the summer.

Aaron Z

 

[CADplans]

Being retired,, snow has the same effect as 75 degree weather,,,

SNOW and cold - go to the sofa and check in at TBN
Sunny and Warm - go to the sofa and check in at TBN

:thumbsup:

Just kidding,, I just came in from starting the JD 650 that has had the block heater plugged in for 3 hours.
THAT was really nice to have it start without the chug, chug,, chugg,,, :cool2:

Luckily, I live in Virginia,, it is not a State,,, it is a Commonwealth,,,

 

[MossRoad]

They do that at our local library in the summer.

Aaron Z

Someone stole our book!

 

[CADplans]

Yeah, it is. True, but sad. I think the law here is something like, if X% of the school is composed of kids from families below the poverty line, the entire school gets free breakfast and lunch. And its quite a few schools that qualify for 100% free meals. Summertime parks programs provide free lunches when school is out.

On our local news,,, today!!
the schools are gonna open on snow days,,, so they can still feed the kids,, :confused2:

Next, they will need to run buses to get them there,,,

Hmmmmmmm,,,,,,,

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I wonder what all these people would do if they lived where they got a real winter storm all the time ? :confused3:

The original bread and milk video from 2013.

Real storm wise, northerners assume you'll all die.

11 Extreme Weather Videos and Photos Captured On Camera

 

[Lnk]

Up here in the Northeast, we even had a weather man with his own weather scale, "The Ghiorse Factor". For over 35 years people have watched the morning weather report just to find out what his magic number of the day was going to be. My mother in law was one of those "dedicated watchers". I don't like the naming of storms, why can't they wait to see if it really becomes a "Major" event, then name it?

I think that guy retired a few years ago, 2012 I think. I wonder what the number is going to be today?:laughing:

 

[oldpilgrim]

Back in the 70's, I went on a business trip to Atlanta in January. The temp dropped to the mid 20's, and it snowed an inch or so.

I watched the news on the hotel TV and the city was in a panic with the car crashes all over the place. Everyone warned to stay home. They announced that all city workers had the day off as their contract said that anything under 30F made it too cold to work.

 

[Garandman]

No governor or mayor wants to get caught with his snow pants down. It's a good way to lose the next election. Does anybody remember January 2014 Atlanta disaster after 3 inches of snow? //

The best part of that story was that apparently Atlanta had a total of four salt trucks: and two of them crashed leaving the parking lot. Apparently they've increased their fleet of plows from 10 to 58.

Mass is a relatively small state, and the DOT owns 4,000 pieces of snow removal equipment and contracts with that many or more. They have 380,000 tons of salt in inventory. In 2015 cities and towns spent $325 million on snow removal.

Last Saturday we got 6" of snow from about 8am to 6pm in Boston. Nobody blinked, the grocery stores were full of bread and milk, really quite amazing. And my son made $45 shoveling.

 

[PJSprog]

And my son made $45 shoveling.

Nice to know kids are still doing this. :thumbsup: I mowed lawns in the summer, raked leaves in the fall, and shoveled snow in the winter. My parents rarely had to finance my shenanigans as a kid.

 

[Shaneard]

Nice to know kids are still doing this. :thumbsup: I mowed lawns in the summer, raked leaves in the fall, and shoveled snow in the winter. My parents rarely had to finance my shenanigans as a kid.

It is good to know kids get out and earn some money, more importantly work ethic.

I raked hay, got up hay, picked up rocks out of fields, worked in tobacco, shoveled corn off trailer onto conveyor into crib and got wood up every chance we had and I didn't get paid anything BUT mom and dad did let me live with them and they fed me

 

[PJSprog]

It is good to know kids get out and earn some money, more importantly work ethic.

I raked hay, got up hay, picked up rocks out of fields, worked in tobacco, shoveled corn off trailer onto conveyor into crib and got wood up every chance we had and I didn't get paid anything BUT mom and dad did let me live with them and they fed me

The work ethic part is really more important than the pay, at that age, anyway. I grew up in the city, so I did those "city things" to get paid. On weekends, I did plenty of free square bail flinging and corn shoveling at both my Grandpa's and Uncle's farms. They would always offer to pay us, and we would always politely refuse. They definitely fed us well, too, while we were there.

 

[dmccarty]

To me, the bread and milk buying spree makes sense. We have kids and they go through a gallon of milk in a day or two. Heck, when I was a kid I would drink a gallon of milk by myself every day or two. Many kids eat sandwiches at home when not in school so they need more bread than usual.

The wife just had bought what seemed like a bushel of rolls from Costco just before the storm. We grazed on ham sandwiches for lunch and dinner and egg and bacon sandwiches for breakfast while stuck at home from the storm. We still have some rolls left. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

The kids did well with this storm and did not drink all of the milk because they conserved what we had in the house. If there had not been a storm we would have bought at least one or two gallons of milk during the last four days. A friend of ours drove their kid to NEAR our house yesterday. The kid was going stir crazy so they dropped him off at 1/2 mile from the house and one of our kids went down to walk him back to our house. Just was not safe to drive up the snow/ice covered road on a hill. When the friend came back to pick up her kid, again 1/2 mile from the house, she dropped off some frozen pizza and a gallon of milk that our kid back packed back to the house. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Milk and bread are one of our big consumables and milk does not store well so it has to be bought frequently when one has children that drink as much moo juice as a calf.

Later,
Dan