Hobo Jungle

[MartyE]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year yall. Tramp and D love the tree as always. I look forward to it every year.

[The Dirt]

Herre's an interesting little video, shot during the 12/26/10 East Coast Blizzard.

We were warned, here in central PA, to expect 3-6 inches, and the thing slid by us and didn't even flurry. Dodged the bullet. New York City wasn't so lucky, and this short film was shot in Astoria NYC.

Heard about it on the news this morning, where it was being touted as 'oscar-worthy'. When I first watched it on youtube, there were 301 'hits'. When I clicked it to watch it a second time, minutes later, it was up to 459. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uR1TjhDzT4

Anybody have any personal stories from this storm?

[healey36]

Had to drive to Fayetteville NC for a funeral service on Sunday, 26th. Driving F-250 4X4, left Baltimore at 08:30AM, hit snow thirty miles north of Richmond on I-95. Tough conditions the rest of the way, due primarily to folks out on the road who were unprepared for it. Took nine hours to get down there, spent a couple of hours on the ground visiting family, then jumped back in and headed north. Got back into Baltimore around 02:00AM Monday. I-95 was pretty clear for the drive back, except all of the overpasses were glazed...made for some excitement on the blindside of each. Folks just don't get the "Bridge Surface Freezes Before Roadway" signage. Saw alot of headlights pointed in the wrong direction. Only about six inches on the ground in Fayetteville, but the town was pretty well closed up tight. Luckily found a Hess station open selling diesel. Would have stayed overnight except had to be back for ski-patrol at Wisp Noon Monday.

healey

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Anybody have any personal stories from this storm?

We got maybe 1/2" in No. Va and bucketloads of the usual panic,

But, we got a lot of serious wind the next day or so; glad I'd had a crew come out and drop an old dead pine on the ground vs. it being on my garage or worse - on my neighbor's fence.... Cut that all up today - better than any health club,

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...Anybody have any personal stories from this storm?

I do. And this has happened for several storms in the past few years. Y'a see, at 66 and 250+lbs , when we get more than a few inches of snow, I feel threatened. During this storm, two 50-something year olds died while shovelng snow in NJ. Two years ago, a local man of the same age range died and froze in-place in his long driveway trying to push his stalled snowblower back up into his garage - dropped dead right there and wasn't noticed until many hours later.

Snow scares me.

Yet, a twenty-something neighbor comes over w/ his pickup truck and its plow and takes care of our driveway. Then, he gets out and uses his old coal shovel to clear - and I mean clear - all the walkways and sidewalks. He refuses any money, always.

When he doesn't come by, our next-door 49yr old neighbor shows up and removes our muscular Ariens snowblower from the garage (he likes it better than his own) and plows our driveway and sidewalks, his own, and another neighbor's. We thank him w/ cheers (hanging out our windows, waving and grinning like seniors on a cruise ship,) cakes, and/or champagne to take home w/ him, but he knows and we know there is no way we can thank him sufficiently.

I am amazed at such acts of kindnesses and humbled by them. (I get choked-up over them, frankly.) I don't have any idea what we did to deserve such kindness. Maybe we did nothing, and these guys are just good folks who know how to be exceptional neighbors.

From my persepctive, I feel they are saving my life every time they show up unannounced and unsolicited at our snowed-in doors. Thank God they do.

And that's my story, Pete.

[webenda]

Pete,

Thank you for the video link. That was excellent photography and editing, apparently by Jamie Stuart.

Forecast 28°F tonight, so I have to cover our tropical plants that are in the ground and can't be brought in.

[The Dirt]

Wayne, glad you liked it. I thought it was very well done, and very interesting.

Murph, did you ever see "Evan Almighty"? It's a cute movie with Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman, in which Carell is a lovable shmoe commanded by God (Freeman) to build an ark in the middle of his D.C. suburb. As it turns out, 'ark' is an acronym for 'acts of random kindness', and it's an uplifting movie, (with a hysterical 'short' after the credits are over).
Anyway, yes, there are people like this in the world, (and I'd daresay they are more common the more you draw away from urban toward rural, but this is certainly not a truism), but it is a useful endeavor for one to practice as one tries to live his life. Kudos to your neighbors, who emulate a truly Christ-like behavior.

Me, I have a driveway 350 yards ( ) to the top of the hill, where it levels out, and I use a snowblower to clear it, and it takes 4 passes, (2 up, 2 down) to make it wide enough for a car. It's time-consuming, but it is self-propelled (4 gears!) and has a caterpillar track, which dramatically improves the traction. My father-in-law will use the blade on his tractor, but that can muck things up, as the lane is closely bordered by a corral and fence on one side, and a line of 56 pine trees on the other, and one pass with the tractor rolls the snow into an immovable mass, after which no more plowing is possible. The snow-blower picks it up and heaves it out of the way, and can be done from now until Hell freezes over.

Regardless, the manual labor is minimized.

And if the damn thing were ever to die 'in the field', I have Hev Jr. here to drag the carcass back to the garage!

[hev52]

Well Dirt Man, git Hev Jr to move the 56 pines to the other side of the lane..................

[rogruth]

I have always lived in small towns in Ohio,Kentucky and Georgia.There were always a lot of people like Murphs neighbors around.My wife and I were watching the news Wednesday evening and listening to the mayor of New York City being bad mouthed.It may be deserved,I have no way of knowing.But our thoughts were If all of those complainers were get out their shovels and do a little work,they would have their street clear in a short time.

[rogruth]

Dirt,

Yes it is a nice video.I moved south in 1975 when I was 41 and I do NOT miss the winters.Love the north any other time.
I especially miss the hills.

I hope all of our forum friends are well and able to make it through this winter.Good luck to all.

Wayne,

Sounds as if you are having some weather like we have here.We have had more nights below freezing this year than any of the 35 We have lived in Georgia.But tomorrow it will be 70.Had some snow flurries on Christmas day.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

But our thoughts were If all of those complainers were get out their shovels and do a little work,they would have their street clear in a short time.

I suspect that many of them do not own a shovel, or do not know how to use one, or both.

They'd rather complain that it was not done for them fast enough.

[HONDO74]

We don't get the heavy snow in SW Missouri, but what we can get is worse in my opinion. ICE STORMS. A couple of years ago we got hit with one that shut everything down for a couple of weeks. We were lucky because we only lost electricity for 6 days and I had just bought a 6000 watt gen the year before, just in case.

The heavy Ice can snap electrical polls like tooth picks. There were lines down all over the place and major damage to trees. The first night after the Ice hit the sounds of limns breaking and crashing to the ground sounded like you were in a war zone.

While station in the area had fuel they could not pump it because the electricity was out. Made for fun trying to find fuel for the generator.

Robert

First pictures are the tree in front of my house. Then pictures of neighbors trees.













Looking out the back at the next street over.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

WOW! It looks like some kind of glass neighborhood! I imagine such weight puts a strain on the roofs, too. Yikes!

[webenda]

Hondo,

Some people buy tinsel to represent icicles on their Christmas tree. Here in Tucson they hang lighted plastic icicles from the eves. You get yours for free... and don't even have to install them yourself.

[webenda]