Snow

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runcible
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Snow

Post by runcible »

It's embarrassing how ill-equipped we Brits are at tackling any sort of extreme weather. We have quite a lot of snow about - a few inches where I live - and the whole country is in a mess. I was able to take the kids to school without any problem the last 2 days and I know it would be the same today but... the school is shut. Cue various problems for parents. I am meant to be going to London later to see Bardo Pond tonight (if I can get there) so I have to sort childcare, but loads of parents would be working today and have arrangements to make on that front. Mind you just wait til we get a heatwave and once again Britain grinds to a halt as we have no idea how to cope with hot weather either. Every place I have been to with such weather - cold or hot - seems able to cope and the snow or sun is simply an inconvenience. 'Oh but we're not used to it here' they say... Bollocks... same excuse every time it happens so we ought to be used to it by now.

Mild rant over, but my embarrassment remains.
bunnyben
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Re: Snow

Post by bunnyben »

we suck
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
Laz69
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Re: Snow

Post by Laz69 »

Yeah i agree... a flurry of snow and the country just hits the panic button.

Unfortunately, we've had about15 inches of snow since Sunday. Local streets are just death traps, as is most of the town we stay in. Schools have been shut all week and no sign of any let up. I'm still getting to work, but its a helluva journey.
I can accept that, in our situation life kinda grinds to a halt, but the panic that sets in when an inch of snow appears is just ridiculous.
runcible
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Re: Snow

Post by runcible »

I have just given up trying to get to London. Took me 2 hours to get just over a mile down the road. Thoroughly pissed off. Bardo Pond play in the UK so rarely that to miss them is genuinely painful.
Laz69
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Re: Snow

Post by Laz69 »

:( sorry to hear that Mark
runcible
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Re: Snow

Post by runcible »

Someone I know has flown from Aberdeen to London in the time it took me to travel less than 2 miles for the gig tonight. ABERDEEN! What the fuck?

Seriously miserable sitting here knowing what I'm missing out on. :cry:
MODLAB
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Re: Snow

Post by MODLAB »

That's terrible. I feel for you.

Since I kinda know the snow business. I can tell you that part of the fault
is that the councils had to wait to see how much they were receiving from
the main government. SO huge amounts of salt and snow/ice removal
chemicals were stuck at ports just wasting away until the last minute and
still they have not divided all of it. So thank BIG BROTHER first.

Sorry,


Mark

EDIT: http://www.saltunion.com/
Design.
spzretent
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Re: Snow

Post by spzretent »

I remember in the mid 80's being in London when they were hit with 3 inches of snow and the snow removal was tossing some grit(sand and salt?). Problem was at night the sidewalks froze up and I nearly busted my ankle several times.
I guess thats something us in the nothern part of the US and especially Canada are good at. Maybe we should invade England. :lol:
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sonic124
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Re: Snow

Post by sonic124 »

To be fair it has been pretty extreme today. People wonder how the Scandanavians cope but they have it for months and are geared up for it. Last year was the first time in ages we had snow (well in Leeds anyway) that stayed for more than a day (about 1 month in the end). Missus School was open today so she drove down 6.50 this morning spun the car on the way got to school which is 15 miles away. Got there and then at 9am they closed the school. Drove 1 mile and crashed the car twice (she is ok but very shaken up) Then took 6 hours to get home on the break down truck not a fun day. So you can understand when i say shut the schools so no one gets injured a few days aint going to hurt anyone. + Going to cost £300 for the car (Excess to pay) obv so near Xmas is a pisser- just for trying to get into school.
runcible
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Re: Snow

Post by runcible »

Not good at all - sorry she had such a horrible day. We are certainly poorly prepared in this country. The main road near me was snowed over for much of the day so the grit lorries obviously didn't visit us here that much and the traffic was quite appalling. I ended up turning back as nothing was moving.
toomilk
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Re: Snow

Post by toomilk »

Bummer.

You are speaking to a Southern California native though. If even the slightest rain comes down, people scream "WATER IS FALLING OUT OF THE SKY!", crash their cars, and/or drive 30 mph slower.
olan
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Re: Snow

Post by olan »

toomilk wrote:Bummer.

You are speaking to a Southern California native though. If even the slightest rain comes down, people scream "WATER IS FALLING OUT OF THE SKY!", crash their cars, and/or drive 30 mph slower.
I wish they'd slow down here at the moment. It has been pissing it down in Victoria for the last week or so, biblical torrents etc etc. I was on the Hume Highway today, blokes aquaplaning past me at over 130Kph. I've got the kids in the car....What.A.nightmare. I'm still angry about it. :evil:
Already There
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Re: Snow

Post by Already There »

I don't think that's a particularly British problem. :lol: Every year I hear the same news from the US and this December didn't start too well in Germany either.
toomilk wrote:Bummer.

You are speaking to a Southern California native though. If even the slightest rain comes down, people scream "WATER IS FALLING OUT OF THE SKY!", crash their cars, and/or drive 30 mph slower.
:lol:
W: What are we supposed to do with that?
M: Eat it.
W: Eat it? Fucker’s alive.
M: Yeah, you’ve got to kill it.
W: Me? I’m the firelighter and fuel collector.

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Goodnightgoodnight
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Re: Snow

Post by Goodnightgoodnight »

Cons: It's been snowing for three days! Why close the fucking trains down on the one fucking day i need to use them?! Bastards.

Pros: Building snowmen :D
bunnyben
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Re: Snow

Post by bunnyben »

i have to be at work for 7am tomorrow but in town everywhere was closing at 4.30 or didn't open today. how is that fair?
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
scratch
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Re: Snow

Post by scratch »

sonic124 wrote: People wonder how the Scandanavians cope but they have it for months and are geared up for it. .
We have laws requiring snow tires and/or chains.. but apart from maybe being better prepared when it comes to tires we suffer from the cold as much as anyone.. which is why the southern parts are where most of the population live.
"the greatest example of self-violation in the history of art"
spzretent
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Re: Snow

Post by spzretent »

Already There wrote:I don't think that's a particularly British problem. :lol: Every year I hear the same news from the US and this December didn't start too well in Germany either.
:
Take a city like Buffalo NY. They get blasted worse than aqyplace in the US. They have already had one 3 foot snowfall this year and they take a day to clear it and everything moves along. Cleveland gets it pretty bad as well. I suppose many years of experience and they have it down like a science. Snow removal that is.
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redcloud
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Re: Snow

Post by redcloud »

spzretent wrote: Take a city like Buffalo NY. They get blasted worse than aqyplace in the US. They have already had one 3 foot snowfall this year and they take a day to clear it and everything moves along. Cleveland gets it pretty bad as well. I suppose many years of experience and they have it down like a science. Snow removal that is.
My folks now live in Syracuse, NY. I actually think it may receive more snow than Buffalo simply because it is inland. Snow blows off of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and seems to dump on Syracuse and the central NY region. On average they get well over 100 inches of snow a year. And it's freezing cold there. Just grey skies, freezing cold and thick snow. But, as you say...as soon as the meterologist forecast snow or the first flakes arrive the trucks are out plowing and gritting. In Portland, even though we are surrounded by mountains when even an inch or two falls in the city it is complete panic! Pretty pathetic. But, then again so many people in Portland moved up here from California and never learned how to drive properly in snow.

Growing up in Cleveland did have its advantages. I feel like I am a confident driver in the snow.
BzaInSpace
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Re: Snow

Post by BzaInSpace »

Crazy scenes here last week. Was something else trudging through the deserted, post-apocalyptic-esque streets following The Great Glaswegian Freeze of 2010.

Unfortunately average time to journey to work was 3 fuckin' hours.,,and I had a full series of shifts. The same back 12 hours later. Hey - at least I made it back home each night right enough. Many did not.

The first night or two - before the novelty wore off - the placed looked amazing though - especially from where I work which looks down and across the whole Sick City. Everything look pure and amazing. Getting around was a drag after a while. And the coldness....Christ's chin!

My only real complaint was even after Tuesday night, when the city centre and just outside roads were much clearer, did it not occur to the buffoons who run FirstBus to have perhaps more than one bus per route per hour? I appreciate safety first - expecially on those sideroads and anywhere not gritted - but for the main through routed the service was despicable.

I have it on good authority a lot of the drivers either didn't turn up or worse still refused to drive, even routes designated safe. Probably went straight down the offy...bastards!

Anyway. 'They' say it may come back this week. In that case it's gonna be snowmen and vodka or nothing.
O P 8
spzretent
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Re: Snow

Post by spzretent »

We are getting our first dose of significant snow today. Big, giant, heavy wet snowflakes. Looks nice but its not helping business at all. Oh well. At least the main roads are fairly clear.
Wow! These are monstrous snow flakes.
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runcible
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Re: Snow

Post by runcible »

It's gone from here thank God. I will say the countryside around me - beautiful anyway - looked quite incredible with that much snow. But it became a pain and walking to the bus was filled with risky excitement.
Laz69
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Re: Snow

Post by Laz69 »

BzaInSpace wrote:Crazy scenes here last week. Was something else trudging through the deserted, post-apocalyptic-esque streets following The Great Glaswegian Freeze of 2010.

Unfortunately average time to journey to work was 3 fuckin' hours.,,and I had a full series of shifts. The same back 12 hours later. Hey - at least I made it back home each night right enough. Many did not.

The first night or two - before the novelty wore off - the placed looked amazing though - especially from where I work which looks down and across the whole Sick City. Everything look pure and amazing. Getting around was a drag after a while. And the coldness....Christ's chin!

My only real complaint was even after Tuesday night, when the city centre and just outside roads were much clearer, did it not occur to the buffoons who run FirstBus to have perhaps more than one bus per route per hour? I appreciate safety first - expecially on those sideroads and anywhere not gritted - but for the main through routed the service was despicable.

I have it on good authority a lot of the drivers either didn't turn up or worse still refused to drive, even routes designated safe. Probably went straight down the offy...bastards!

Anyway. 'They' say it may come back this week. In that case it's gonna be snowmen and vodka or nothing.
The journey home last Monday was a nightmare, but driving thru the streets of a very foggy Glasgow/Lanarkshire was eerie to say the least. The freezing cold temperatures, the thick fog, the rough housing estates and desolate roads felt very apocalyptic!

I work out beside Ibrox and the only transport out here (apart from risking the drive) was the glasgow underground, but since no trains or buses were running, you couldn't go any further than the city itself! A few work colleagues walked it home to Rutherglen too!

I left work at 4:30pm last Monday and finally got home just after 10pm... got onto M8... stuck it out for as long as i could, but the urge to pee took over and i came off the M8... tried to get home via Bailleston, was going nowhere, so drove back in to Glasgow (stopping off for a pish behind a bus stop!) and headed for Mount Vernon. Thought i'd won a watch, as i got all the way back to Bellshill... only to lose control of the car at the top of our street while trying to park and hit a big snow bank... Called Mrs Laz, who like a true knight in shining armour, legged it up to meet me with a spade... finally got the car dug out and onto the road before i drove back into our town centre and parked/abandoned it for the night.

M8 was a death trap... could see the thick ice forming on the road in front of my eyes. Every other road was just gridlocked... Every main road in/out of Bellshill had lorries stuck on them, so even though i got back home, i had no chance of going anywhere. Lost two days of work last week as a result. Kids schools were shut which then screwed up our work/childcare... everything just falls apart from there on in...

Sometimes i really fuckin hate driving/Scotland/weather... and if it thinks about coming back, it'll have fuckin me to deal with!!!! :evil:
spzretent
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Re: Snow

Post by spzretent »

This storm that just passed thru was a mofo. It started out heavy wet snow and then the temperature plummeted and the wind started howling which means all the slush/snow under the new snow froze up like ice. Not like. It is ice. It was so bad it caved in the roof of a football stadium in Minneapolis and they moved the game to Detroit tonight.
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Laz69
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Re: Snow

Post by Laz69 »

Just seen that on the news earlier here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViGg-35d ... r_embedded
spzretent
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Re: Snow

Post by spzretent »

that footage is so bizzare it doesn't seem real.
I just got back from driving around and I cant remember driving so shitty many hours after a storm passed thru. Driving on ice is not fun. I came upon a stop light and just slid right thru the intersection. I'm glad to be home. For the rest of the day.
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redcloud
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Re: Snow

Post by redcloud »

Laz69 wrote:Just seen that on the news earlier here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViGg-35d ... r_embedded

That collapsing roof is inflatable. It's on the Minnesota Vikings (American football) stadium. Did I say it was inflatable? Yes, that's right, you heard me correctly...INFLATABLE! This is also the third time it has punctured. Minneapolis gets a lot of snow and it is very flat. High winds and severe thunderstorms are not uncommon as well as freezing cold and heavy snowfall. Why would anybody put an inflatable roof in a city that averages about 50 inches of snow a year? Beggers belief.
bunnyben
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Re: Snow

Post by bunnyben »

i'm waiting for my post to turn up!
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
redcloud
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Re: Snow

Post by redcloud »

We were supposed to fly to England yesterday but due to the snow Heathrow was closed and our plane was canceled. We're rescheduled to fly tomorrow...fingers crossed we get there for Christmas to see my wife's family. Still amazes me how in 2010 a few inches of snow can collapse our infrastructure.
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