"Ice"tastrophy 2011
 

So, who's sick of being in the house??

My father fell on the ice today and he wound up in the emergency room... he's alright though. I had to chip a half inch of ice off my car, and it took me 45 minutes to do so. I have cabin fever and can't stand to be here any longer, but it's too nasty out to go anywhere!

ohh! is your father ok?

I'm glad you father is fine. Other than yesterday and today, this terrible weather has only stopped a fraction of my walking for exersize habit.

My dad is fine... bruised up pretty good though. They didn't have to do anything to him, thankfully. We're not even able to walk out our doors without the threat of falling. My oldest daughter bit it first thing this morning letting the dogs out. I had to get out there and chop up the back porch. That was a mess! I'm guessing about 2 inches thick!

2 inches oh man!

I am sooooooooooooooo sick of this weather!!! We have like 3 ft of snow+ and theres still more to come!!!!!! I gogt stuck 3 times today driving

I was annoyed...
 

when I drove out to the cemetery yesterday and the snow drifts were over 4 tall (With the wind gusting between 20-40MPH out of the North), I tried to drive through the smaller ones at the entrance with the 4 wheel drive turned on in my Trailblazer, and even with traction control I could not grip the road...so instead of being abandoned 9.7 miles from home :shocked: I backed out in reverse and came home. :confused:

Somewhere Debbie's spirit is saying "Way to go ex-lax!" :lol:

Been so NOT enjoying the single digit temps the past few evenings, and tonight the low is supposed to be -1°F (If not lower) - at least we were spared the ice this time, but the local TV weather forecast said more cold air is on the way....Great! :shrug:

I am so tired of this weather, but luckily we haven't had much of it. It was a nice 75 degrees here on Monday and I got to go enjoy the day wearing shorts. However, it has been miserably cold and windy the past 2 days and isn't getting above freezing until Friday or possibly Sat. The cabin fever hasn't set in for me yet, so I wouldn't mind staying couped up for a few days, but I have class at 8 AM tomorrow and my water is frozen. Le sigh...

It's funny that people are complaining here about snowstorms, when in Australia the average temperature this week has been 30 Degrees. However, Queenslander's just had the floods and a cyclone.
Has anyone lost their lives in the storms?

I have been very concerned with any information I can read or watch about Cyclone Yasi. I have often thought about you in the last two days wondering how or if you are affected by this storm. Unfortunately, very little info is available on the net. What can you tell us?

Awww, how nice.
Fortunately I live in Victoria, which is the southern most state. Victoria did have some flood damage, but that was up north - our problem is forest fires.
Cyclone Yasi has caused some damage, but from what I am hearing it is not super bad.

As I said earlier before, that Yasi was not 'super bad' sadly, this does not seem to be the case.

Here is a gallery:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/cy...si/gallery.htm

We missed this storm here in Minnesota, which is odd considering Minnesota is usually ALWAYS the place that gets nailed during these events.

we're getting another 4 to 8 inches of snow this saturday =\

I was unable to open either door of my car today due to the ice, so my much-anticipated trip to the 'docklands' (aka the laundromat) will need to wait til tomorrow. If I can open either of the car doors, then, I can get to sudsing.
That car is loaded up with a good 7 loads of laundry, but I can knock that out in 2 hours at the docklands, rather than all day at my parents house. (The washer and dryer that came with my house- neither work. That's so convenient- not, but I told the owner I didn't care, to try to be liked). I don't mind doing laundry at my parents or at the docklands, plus it keeps me out of the basement- I hate basements- and that's where the washer-dryer is here.
All of these sub-zero degrees have probably killed most germs in the sacks inside my back seat and in the trunk. When I tried to open the passenger door tonight, I fell, my first fall of the year. Kind of fun, as I didn't get hurt.
Trying to see the bright side.
Oh, I know it's eccentric- but for years now, I have brought my laundry that needs to be washed out to the car trunk, usually inside of king pillowcases. I can not stand full hampers of unclean clothes and towels inside where I live, the car trunk suits me fine.
I need the inside of the house clean, always. My car has turned into quite a mess, however! I'll tend to that once all the laundry is clean and put away. Tip: bring hangers with you to the laundramat for shirts and pants, and large clear bins with lids for towels and socks, along with a laundry basket for miscellaneous items- bringing those things with me cuts half the work when I get home to put it all away where it belongs.

I'm waiting for abother 3 or so inches of snow here. The ice hasn't even melted yet. When I look outside the window at night, my yard is shiny... haha! I'll have to post some pics. I haven't seen an ice storm like this since I was a little kid, so I guess it's kinda neat for me. But, I'm ready for it to go away. :lol:

Round 2...
 

is expected here in Oklahoma starting tomorrow afternoon, with between 6 to 12 inches of snow and winds out of the North at 40-45MPH...with windchill temps at about -15 below zero.

It turned black all of sudden here earlier this evening about 6. Heavy winds and the palms blowing. I hurried and turned on the news to keep alerted. I don't know if it had anything to do with any nasty weather up north but things got scary there for a minute.

I have lots of relatives in Townsville - they seem to have been very lucky and come out of it relatively unscathed.

Up here, we got an ice storm-thing last week (point is that everything was encased in ice), we have snow up to the mailbox (my aunt in CT has it worse: her snow is so high that she had to carve out a small hole where her mailbox opens), my mom is highly considering leasing an SUV once the lease on her Accord is up (she's thinking of a small one, like a CR-V or a Subaru Forester) and I'm sick of this snow! Hell, I'm so tired of the cold and snow that, in the next few years, I might be leaving NY for a much warmer climate, Phoenix being very high up on the list

Sure, there are warmer and sunnier places in the country... and they are sure nice to visit this time of year. But living there year-round is another matter. I will take the crappy weather in exchange for culture, diversity, and the energy of the Northeast. All of the palm trees, sand and surf in the world will not make up for the xenophobia, vapidity and right-wing sentiment rampant throughout the southern tier of this country.

^
What about Southern California? Or even Northern California? I loved living in Los Angeles until I didn't love it after 13 years or so.
I'm just happy for the milder weather these past 2 days with light drizzle. Also very happy to finally figure out how to get my car out of my driveway yesterday. For 3 days, I wrongly thought the ice and snow was keeping my front left tire from being able to move, despite hours spent shoveling and using ice melting salt, 2 kinds, and cat litter.
That front tire was stuck down inside of a 3 inch hole! The landlord had chosen to place white stones up and down the 1oo foot driveway, kind of pretty, but he took the cheap way out. He at least could have had the potholes in the broken asphalt filled in. Turns out I had parked where the asphalt had a major crack/hole, and my front tire was lodged down there. A 14 year old girl in the neighborhood told me "Hey, Koly (I hate being called 'Koly')- just put a long board behind that tire, straighten the wheel out, put it in reverse, and the car will back right out."
I walked a few doors away to my parents garage, found a board from an old coffee table my father bashed apart to make a makeshift ramp years ago, and danged if it didn't work. That neighbor girl may call me 'Koly' for the rest of her life should she want to- how the hell did a 14 year old know what to do? Maybe she had seen the big holes before the driveway was covered with the decorative stones. I had no idea there were such large holes in the driveway, at all. Duh.
Anyway, the board worked like a charm.

I'd love to got LA, but my biggest problem is that it's even more expensive than NY in regard to property taxes and the land the houses are on is even smaller than here. Throw in earthquakes, landslides, and wild fires, and it's a recipe for disaster.

^
There was a racial tension in LA in the early 90s that contributed to my leaving, along with the fact that the love of my life refused to see me, and would hang up on me every time I tried to call. I used to like to spend time on the rooftop of my building, and I witnessed a homeless (black) person trying to rob a young guy who was driving a very cool Jeep- Jeep's were popular in LA in the 90s. From my rooftop, I saw the young guy punch out the homeless man, and instantly, cars stopped, with outraged people of various races chastising the guy horribly for hitting the man, til the kid in the Jeep ran back into it and sped off, amidst jeers and cruelty. He had only been defending himself- had I the time and the guts to leave from the roof to go to the elevators and down to the street to defend the kid, I would have appeared racist, which was what passers-by were screaming at him about-that he decked the guy because of his race, and it wasn't the case at all. It was right around the time of the infamous Rodney King Police Beating, a horrible thing, and there were riots in relatively good (not great) sections of Hollywood I worked in.
Also, people were dying left and right of AIDS- LA became creepy to me. So, I left. I miss it at times, but it was a perfect place to be young in the 80s and into the 90s. I doubt I'll ever return.
That 'love of my life' died less than a year after I left, and maybe he knew he was dying, and that's why he wouldn't even speak to me. Or, maybe he just hated me by then. I didn't find out until 3 years after his death that he'd died. I still don't know most of the details- it remains a haunting thing, but death is death, there is nothing to change that.
I was ready to leave. I loved pretending to be a 'native' of Southern California, and after a few years I seemed and felt like one. But, it was just a haven of that time, not meant to last, in my life.

I know you were probably talking about the South in general but around my part of Florida I've found diversity and with people being from everywhere, they welcome and bring whatever culture with them. In my experience the people here are no different than ones up home. I think we just like living in a warmer place and for some, prettier. There's good things and bad things about both Home and Florida, but either one has it's tradeoffs in the end. For me it was really about getting out of Ohio and the same place I'd lived for over 30 years and just being around something "new" for a change. I didn't want to move across the country and really there was no other place I wanted to live but beautiful Florida and while I'm now 1100 miles away from the family up there that stayed, I know it's only a short plane ride or 16 hour drive up or down I75 if we want to see each other and we have over last summer and this winter. I took a walk yesterday in February and the sun was shining and birds chirping and the smell of flowers and a big butterfly flew by and I know you couldn't see (or do) these things in most of the country right now so it's the little things like that I appreciate in the place I chose to move while still being somewhat close to my old life. It's the best of both worlds right now. Another plus about living in a place many people vacation, is I have racked in about 40 years worth since being here last winter. :)