It's snowing!

[rafletcher]

Local-ish tennis club weather station has a low of -8.7, now up to -8.3.  That's a known frost hollow in Chesham, so probably -6-ish here. Bright and crisp.

[hellymedic]

My outdoor thermometer reads 5.9C, the sun is shining, the roads are clear though there is some residual SNO on the lawn.

Sainsbury's have suspended all local deliveries until Friday.

David wonders why I keep high levels of Stuffs in stock.

My hoard of cat food tins means the cats won't starve; they are putting a LOT down!

[Quint]

Anyone have recommendation for crampon thingies? I vaguely recall someone on here getting some a year or two back (possibly nikki?).

I have some cheapy things from some high street discount chain or other.

Something thusly for about £7 or similar and they make a noticeable difference

    Try a pair of wooly socks over your boots, screws the socks but traction massively improved.

[Mr Larrington]

Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles has been lacking certain essentials, such as Marlboro Gold, since at least Friday.  Which they therefore cannot blame on the SNO.

[hellymedic]

Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles has been lacking certain essentials, such as Marlboro Gold, since at least Friday.  Which they therefore cannot blame on the SNO.

[Marie Antoinette moment]

But the Stroopwafels are on Special Offer, if that's any consolation...

[jsabine]

Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles has been lacking certain essentials, such as Marlboro Gold, since at least Friday.  Which they therefore cannot blame on the SNO.

They can, however, blame it on the wholesaler going into administration, so fags are currently being shipped out by means that are i) not used to it, and ii) not necessarily equipped to handle the detail.

[Quint]

RWD or |FWD, if you know how to drive you can handle the conditions, (for what it is worth we now own a 2003 Volvo V40 fwd) I have driven over 1,000,000 miles over 30 odd years professionally a lot of them on RWD, trouble is a lot of drivers just jump in and play with the pedals instead of learning how to cope with adverse conditions. Hey ho.

I think RWD (assuming front-engined!) only really suffers when pulling away in very low friction conditions. Once you're moving - as you say - it's more swings and roundabouts.

I had a pre-gadgets 3-Series which wasn't very good at this; BMW helpfully provided floor mats which they said were tough enough to use under the drive wheels in slippery conditions!

         03-00 on a snowy morning in Oxford (several years back) coming up New Road in a black Ford Granada I decided to have a play no one else about so blipped the throttle, the back swung out kept the throttle on so she did a complete circle eased it off and carried on my way, only then did I spot a police gently shaking his head as he stood sheltering from the snow in the library doorway. All good fun

[Kim]

Try a pair of wooly socks over your boots, screws the socks but traction massively improved.

I've seen it done to good effect, but it only makes sense if you can steal suitable wooly socks from someone with giant man-feet.  If you've got to go out and buy them specially, you might as well get grippers.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Except that you can go into eg Primark and get a pair of humongous woolly (or fluffy acrylic with bobbles on the bottom) socks for a few pence, whereas grippers will have to searched for.

[Kim]

Except that you can go into eg Primark and get a pair of humongous woolly (or fluffy acrylic with bobbles on the bottom) socks for a few pence, whereas grippers will have to searched for.

I think I bought the ones barakta's currently using from Adsa for under a fiver, on "that looks like a good way to avoid a debilitating arm injury" impulse-buy logic.  I didn't realise they were particularly hard to find.

[Cudzoziemiec]

They might be easy to find if you look for them, but I've never had to! And I've never seen them without looking for them, at least not that sticks in memory. For all I know, they might actually sell them in Primark, next to the woolly socks! (which I'm sure aren't actually woolly in Primark but hey)

[hellymedic]

Santa gift stocking?

[Torslanda]

Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles has been lacking certain essentials, such as Marlboro Gold, since at least Friday.  Which they therefore cannot blame on the SNO.

They can, however, blame it on the wholesaler going into administration, so fags are currently being shipped out by means that are i) not used to it, and ii) not necessarily equipped to handle the detail.

<Slightly OT> reasons cited 'cashflow' and 'failure to restructure' the business. Step forward the boards of Tossco and Teh House of Toothy etc. Pushing your suppliers from 30 days to 60 or 90 or even 120 days credit is only going to end badly. Suck it up cupcakes, you fucked it...

<Back OT> Nth Mancunium is remarkably SNO free . . .

OTOH it's pissing down. So no change there then.

[Mr Larrington]

Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles has been lacking certain essentials, such as Marlboro Gold, since at least Friday.  Which they therefore cannot blame on the SNO.

They can, however, blame it on the wholesaler going into administration, so fags are currently being shipped out by means that are i) not used to it, and ii) not necessarily equipped to handle the detail.

That could be it, though I managed to source some from Morrisons, and fir less money too.  As to the Stroopwafels, they are, alas, not on offer in my branch of Mr Sainsbury's House Of Toothy Comestibles.

[ElyDave]

A whole 0.2 Feb c in my gym/shed yesterday. I did my warm up in a fleece with the hot air blower directed to my feet. I think that's the longest I've left it on

[Kim]

It's currently 6C and pish in Brummingham.  This is turning the snow and ice to dirty slush at an accelerated rate.  I'm remaining indoors.

[cycleman]

Good trike weather  , just saying 

[Kim]

Last time I rode a trike in conditions like this, the council helpfully gritted my face.   

[Quint]

Good trike weather  , just saying 

                   Chris,
You've seen that photo with my trike under 4 inches of sno after coming out of Oxford at 04-00 in a blizzard

[essexian]

GGGGRrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... its snowing again! About 1cm in the last hour.

Not best pleased about that as I thought it was improving around here. 

[Aunt Maud]

Pleased to say that I arrived this afternoon for plastering in Essexshire, without a sno related incident.

[phantasmagoriana]

Still no snow. However, thanks to icy rain earlier today and yesterday we now have black ice all over the pavements. My walk home took twice as long as usual because I was sliding all over the place. From what I can gather, the roads and cycle paths are not great either.

[essexian]

Thankfully, we in deepest Stafford are no longer cut off from the outside world as firstly, we had our first post for 8 days yesterday and then this morning (Sunday) the recycling was collected (due six days ago). 

Okay.... I am being a little arsey here as I can understand why you would not wish to bring a large truck down an icy unsalted road which is on a noticeable slope, but for the life of me, I can't understand why Royal Mail failed to manage it given that we had loads of deliveries from other sources last week. If I was to be charitable (which I am as I am due a reasonably large Post Office pension), I would say its down to the loss of a lot of staff due to the company being given away cheaply a couple of years back...well profit must come first.     Indeed, our post was brought by a bloke wearing a "Manager" badge.

[ElyDave]

Still ice on the back lanes in the fens at midday yesterday.

Raining today and looks cold, but not windy tomorrow, which is good for my 50km each way to addenbrookes for a last long ride of the year.

[hbunnet]

Mrs Hbunnet realised the banging noises were not coming from the DIY bozo acroos the road but from our Grit Bin.  Small pickup, loaded it up and drove off.
Here in rural Aberdeenshire we are still suffering from last weeks snow, low temperatures with some thawing during the day have left the minor roads in a terrible state.
Grit bins are empty in many places but ours had some left, which I was husbanding.

The gritting and ploughing services are at full stretch and the bins haven't been replenished  Clearly grit is a local competitor to BitCoin.