Author Topic: It's snowing!  (Read 633312 times)

Zoidburg

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1225 on: 14 January, 2010, 07:40:46 pm »
Well it's thawed ever so slightly and then frozen again.

As I discovered on a steep ungritted side road this evening, low speed, front wheel just went straight out from under me on what turned out to be a huge sheet of lurking black ice.

In a strange twist of ninja/jedi/zen master freakery I somehow managed to get the right leg over the bars as the bike went down and then land on my feet and slide for about ten meters down the hill, coming to stop by crouching down and sticking my leg into the slide.

I was so chuffed with myself that I was rather disapointed that only one passer by saw me do it.

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1226 on: 14 January, 2010, 07:53:00 pm »
Any CCTV covering  the location.Try the Highway's place in Regent street,Hanley...duck ;)

Zoidburg

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1227 on: 14 January, 2010, 07:55:40 pm »
Twas foggy May Bank sadly. :(


Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1228 on: 14 January, 2010, 07:58:27 pm »
I somehow managed to get the right leg over the bars as the bike went down and then land on my feet and slide for about ten meters down the hill, coming to stop by crouching down and sticking my leg into the slide.

I was so chuffed with myself that I was rather disapointed that only one passer by saw me do it.

Crouching cyclist hidden passer by.
 ;)

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1229 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:22:49 pm »
The binmen came today but didn't empty our bin. Should I feel that I have been discriminated against?
[Quote/]Adrian, you're living proof that bandwidth is far too cheap.[/Quote]

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1230 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:25:56 pm »
Interestingly varied road conditions today. The main roads were wet but basically clear. Some streets, like ours, have had tyre tracks at least cut in the snow by the people that live there. (Can I count digging snow for a couple of hours at a time as cross training?) In streets with a high density of 4 wheel drivers (that's who I'm blaming - they never showed up with a shovel in our street, despite creating the compacted icy bits we were digging) this hasn't happened. However these tracks don't leave much usable road for passing. I ended up on a hill on icy slush and had to get the spade out to make progress.
For the time I was stuck and then while walking Miss Dan the Younger up the hill the car failed on the bin people were parked at the end of the next road. No sign of the men and woman so I assume they were walking up the roads they couldn't drive to collect, although they couldn't get close last week. I'm hoping they get to us tomorrow.
In a similar vein, I phoned the butcher before going at the start of the week - they are on a steep side road - to ask if he had anything to sell me. Of course, he says, we're a professional organisation - not like the supermarkets!   :)

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1231 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:27:23 pm »
Some of you know where I live. It is less than 100m from a Trunk Road. I think tomorrow will be the first time I can get the car back up from its temporary parking space in town to the house. Loads of other people have the same MO, all the lay-bys and similar have been filled with cars for the last 10 days.

I'm lucky, I work from home. Mrs J is less lucky, she has had to put up with being with me for 9 days.  ;D

We've had our bins emptied, but we aren't on a gritting route. I usually shop in town and town has had every thing we need, so it's been wrap up and walk. We've had snowball fights and we've sledged.

In the last few years of my life I've come to treasure these inconveniences. Kids laughing, neighbours looking out for each other, communities discovering that the supermarket delivery lorry is not omnipotent.
It is simpler than it looks.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1232 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:29:43 pm »
Some of you know where I live. It is less than 100m from a Trunk Road. I think tomorrow will be the first time I can get the car back up from its temporary parking space in town to the house.
100 metres?  You could have dug that out.  I did.  Lazy git  :P
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1233 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:30:14 pm »
Back to bins.

It was recycle bin day today so I put that one out.

But the snow seems to have buggered the timetable and it appears that both bins were emptied. That meant that the bin men (who apparently could be arsed) trekked up my drive to find my landfill bin to make sure that I wouldn't miss out on the unscheduled emptying.

Top marks to my binmen. Or gender neutral bin operatives.

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1234 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:30:23 pm »
The binmen came today but didn't empty our bin. Should I feel that I have been discriminated against?

You, specifically, have been singled out, it would seem.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1235 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:31:26 pm »
Some of you know where I live. It is less than 100m from a Trunk Road. I think tomorrow will be the first time I can get the car back up from its temporary parking space in town to the house.
100 metres?  You could have dug that out.  I did.  Lazy git  :P

OK. Cup of tea on offer here next time. OK?  ;D
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1236 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:31:57 pm »
The binmen came today but didn't empty our bin. Should I feel that I have been discriminated against?
Yes - for association with Jogler ;). They know you know.
 ;D
Quote from: Kim
^ This woman knows what she's talking about.

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1237 on: 14 January, 2010, 08:33:18 pm »
Twas foggy May Bank sadly. :(



Regent St is where the secret(ooops,it's not now is it :demon:) CCTV monitoring faclity is.
If you were "seen" it will be recorded.

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1238 on: 15 January, 2010, 07:16:30 am »
Everyone else in the city has been able to go about their normal business for over a week now.  I wonder if that means that we'll get our bin emptied today ?

Edit - and before anyone pitches in with the argument that they've been busying driving gritting lorries, no that's not the reason at all, its because over half of them walked out last week on the grounds that they didn't want to work in the nasty weather !  >:(
Aero but not dynamic

Wombat

  • Is it supposed to hurt this much?
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1239 on: 15 January, 2010, 07:53:18 am »
Bin collections are always interesting. It's about the only visible service that the middle class feel they receive in return for their couple of thousand pounds every year. Of course, that's not accurate but it's certainly how people feel.
I am inclined to agree with you. There are many services that alot of people don't use either because they don't know they exist or because they are not entitled to them or because they don't want them. And many that people don't realise that council tax pays for.

You have it right, but many folk (grumpy old me included) get cheesed off at the amount spent on services that we are not entitled to, or because we have put some effort into life, do not require.  We do not use schools, childcare, social services, and a host of other things.  we make very moderate use of refuse colelction services, so when Havant bloody council repeatedly screw it up yet again, out of sheer bloodymindedness by the bin-men, we get cheesed off.  The number of times the bin truck has been recalled to empty our bin, and replace it in the right place, I have lost count of.  We have been on "special measures" for a couple of years, and still they can't manage it...  and don't start me on gritting.  I think they have the chart the wrong way up, they only grit when it is NOT necessary...
Wombat

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1240 on: 15 January, 2010, 07:56:14 am »
Trouble is, that's the way a modern society works.

"You don't pay Road Tax!"
It is simpler than it looks.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1241 on: 15 January, 2010, 08:44:25 am »


Edit - and before anyone pitches in with the argument that they've been busying driving gritting lorries, no that's not the reason at all, its because over half of them walked out last week on the grounds that they didn't want to work in the nasty weather !  >:(
And I think some of their reasons for that were justified - it's dangerous. But I do recognise that a lot of it was more about general unhappiness at the way they're being treated by the council, modernising pay, threats of privatisation and redundancies. We all got an email yesterday telling us the council is seeking to impose unpaid leave, shorter working weeks (with non-working days not being paid) and probably redundancies. We're all a bit unhappy and unsettled just now.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


border-rider

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1242 on: 15 January, 2010, 11:14:47 am »
Back OT

It's raining here now, and all the sno is melting (someone left the cake out in the rain)

Big Cat has gone out of the house for the first time for about 2 weeks - which is a relief.  He came and shouted at me when he came back in - very pleased with himself :)

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1243 on: 15 January, 2010, 11:33:41 am »
Rain has cleared the roads, but there is now a bit of flooding here and there.
Rain has turned the compressed ice on the paths into PTFE.  :o
Quote from: Marbeaux
Have given this a great deal of thought and decided not to contribute to any further Threads for the time being.
POTD. (decade) :thumbsup:

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1244 on: 15 January, 2010, 12:26:34 pm »
We're all a bit unhappy and unsettled just now.

Oh well, that's alright then.
Aero but not dynamic

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1245 on: 15 January, 2010, 01:13:13 pm »
Looks like the snow has just about all gone from the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Mos Eisley Portsmouth. Or at least the bits of it I travel through to get to work. I reckon that I can put the slicks and road mudguard back on the commuter hack this weekend.

Although judging by the amount of coarse sand/grit laid down in some places, I may need knobbly tyres until the next rain shower washes it all away.  ;D

Actually, the past week or so has once again proved that timing is the very essence of all comedy:

04/01/10 - go for a bike ride, temporarily lose feeling in my toes.

05/01/10 - purchase Defroster boots in Chichester, get back to the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Mos Eisley Portsmouth a couple of hours ahead of the SNOpocalypse...

06/01/10 - local military surplus shop has run out of entrenching tools.

13/01/10 - a fresh delivery of entrenching tools has arrived. Invest in one as against future SNOpocalypses.*

15/01/10 - SNO largely gone.

Not that I'm saying the arrival and departure of the SNO has anything to do with me, oh no...  ;)


"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1246 on: 15 January, 2010, 01:17:18 pm »
SNO all gone from Southend  :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(



Do we have any long range forecasts for Jan/Feb?   When can I expect the next lot?

border-rider

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1247 on: 15 January, 2010, 01:22:16 pm »
Is it time to buy NOS studded tyres cheap yet ?

;)

Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1248 on: 15 January, 2010, 02:35:32 pm »

Do we have any long range forecasts for Jan/Feb?   When can I expect the next lot?

January 2015.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: It's snowing!
« Reply #1249 on: 15 January, 2010, 02:56:45 pm »
Do we have any long range forecasts for Jan/Feb?   When can I expect the next lot?

Don't worry.

Jan/Feb will be back next year.
It is simpler than it looks.