[Coco] Stay warm

[Steven Hirsch]

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014, Bill Pierce wrote:

> I hope all you guys are staying warm. I know some of you that live 
> further north are used to this stuff, but down here in Wilmington NC, 
> where snowplows exist only in movies and people say "Snow tires? What 
> are they?... Are they made of snow or something?" We got about 2-3 
> inches and it shut down the whole county. Usually at this time of the 
> year, I don't even wear a coat and some years have worn shorts all 
> through January. What was bad here is it wasn't snow but 2-3 inches of 
> sleet which just made for frozen roads. On top of that it had already 
> rained all day making for a good frozen ground for it to land on. Since 
> this happens about once every 5 years or so, those in charge cannot 
> justify investing millions in winter road machines or preparations. I'm 
> originally from Rocky Mount NC, which is a little further inland and 
> north of Wilmington. When it got about November or so, my Dad would 
> change all the family vehicles to snow tires (ex-cross country truck 
> driver). Our first winter here in the Wilmington area (1972), he went to 
> the local tire place to get his snow tires put on and they looked at him 
> like he was crazy and laughed. In 1973, we had the largest snow recorded 
> here in over 100 years with 4-5 foot of snow on the ground and 15 foot 
> snow drifts. We had to dig out of back door. My Dad changed over to his 
> snow tires and went to work. They weren't laughing so hard then :-)

I've been watching the events in Atlanta with some degree of horror.  The 
infrastructure in your quandrant of the US just isn't prepared at all for 
this.  Hopefully, folks will just stay off the roads until things are 
cleared.

Here in Burlington, VT a 2-3 inch snowfall is barely noticed and might get 
an offhand mention on the TV weather report.  The last two weeks have seen 
only a couple of days with average temperatures above the single-digits, 
with several nights down in the negative double-digits.  We've burned 
through about half our ceremonial firewood (thankfully NOT our primary 
heating source) trying to take the load off the boiler.  Nothing like a 
finger or two of Jack Daniels while you warm up in front of the woodstove 
after clearing the driveway :-).  My idea of "Northern Comfort"!

Ice and freezing rain does bring everything to a total standstill.  That's 
sort of a constant wherever you are.

Steve


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