Ghost Town?

[Hawk]

Nobody has posted here at the Terminal since Dec. 11. What happened?  ???

[JSS]

The elections are over and Gwizz must be digging himself out of all that snow first before he gets going commenting on the 2nd bailout package. Looking forward to that.

[Hawk]

I s'pose you're right JS.  ;D

[Gwizz]

Every time I dig out I get buried again.

I dug out today and I'm told more snow coming tonight after midnight.

Actually I think I may qualify for a bailout of some kind.  I.m not sure what.  But, it will have something to do with snow, I'm sure.

I was planning a train trip to the rockies in Canada to get some sunshine.  I'm low on vitamin D.

Then I remembered I still don't have a passport and might not be able to return, to enjoy my snow.

Most passenger trains ran today having been stuck in Oregon,  Greyhound was thinking about running their buses today.  Maybe they did?

Seattle is still running all 24 of their snow plows.  Boise a city one tenth the size of Seattle has parked their 180 snow plows.  But then Boise gets snow more often then Seattle does and never gets snowed in. 

Seattle is refusing to use salt on the roads.  They say it is hard on cars. True.  But the bigger reason is it will run off into the sound and hurt the fish.  I guess they don't know there is salt in sea water.  Instead they dumped 8 thousand tons of sand on the city's main streets to plug up the drains when it rains again. 

The airport ran out of de-icer and grounded all (airo)planes. When Greyhound stopped their buses and sent the stranded passengers to homeless shelters, the Shelters refused to take kids and half the passengers became homeless.  They were then sent to the opera house that had already locked its' doors for the day.  It took a while before the passengers were in the opera seats.  The Nut Cracker had been canceled.  Somebody had spilled something white on the streets and it was not proper for Opera goers to walk on it. 

I think I forgot how to drive my 4 wheel drive Jeep in the snow.  It took me 4 tries to deliver Christmas cheer last night to one friend. I've parked my jeep under a 12 foot snow bank.  About lost my mirrors backing out.  But, last night, 8 inches of snow sent me sliding backward down a steep slope on the first try.  I got a long run and made the grade on the fourth try.  I was ashamed of my jeep.  But it did have a very low tire that fouled up the computers understanding of slip.

I snoooooked a look at a 24 DVD pack of Railroading, Trolleys and Mass transit in the US.  They are outstanding.  I've watched 14 of them so far.  Don't tell my family.

Bailouts, Depression, Humbug stuff.  Snow is more fun. 

[Gwizz]

My son had 12" to 14" of snow yesterday and over the last 24 hours gained another 7 inches.

So,  we had a conference call with video.  Neat.  But we could only see what the cam was pointed at.

[Hawk]

Where does your son live?

[Gwizz]

He lives North of Seattle. We are about 50 miles apart.

The rain was to arrive today.  It tried.  >:(

It snowed about as much as it rained.  The weatherman said tomorrow it will be all rain.  He did say maybe some snow?   we did some errands anyway.   

I saw a number of cars high centered on the snowy mush or just stuck in the wet snow.  Many were in parking lots.  There is just not enough equipment around to use for snow removal.  I watched a lumber company using a fork left with a banded stack of lumber to ram snow off of their main driveway until the steel bands broke spilling lumber across the driveway.  Seattle normally is a city where it only rains a lot.  My worry now is I have a lot of slushy snow and if it rains a lot tomorrow the creek could rise and I don't remember where I put my pumps.

Got my leaky tire fixed.  had a wood screw in the tread. 

I followed the wife around as she looked for end-of-season sales.

There wasn't much found that we could use as Christmas gifts for next year or for birthdays.

Tomorrow we will meet at my sons and have our delayed Christmas eve dinner and exchange our gifts.

There are still some gifts in UPS trucks or at the post office.

Maybe with Christmas gift prices running 50% or less after Christmas, having a delayed Christmas gift exchange and dinner could be a money saver for next year.  With so much on-line shopping, it could help the delivery people.

After tomorrow I should have some time to work on another map if the creek behaves.

[Gwizz]

We have a surprise guest.  So no map work for a few days.

We only got light rain and the snow is melting slowly.  The creek stayed within its banks.

Everything is going well.

I read that there is a town about 70 miles above Sacramento that averages about 20 feet of snow each year.  That make our snow look like a drop in a bucket.  There is an RT2 fan who lives in that area.  A Port town in Alaska averages about 12 feet a year where the narrow gauge Alaskan RR loads tourists. There are a number of towns in Canada that average over 8 feet per year.  I heard this morning that Maine is way below average. That must be where Global Warming is in waiting. Also, London got some snow for the first time in many years.

It is interesting with all the evidence against it, some people still believe in Global Warming.

[thomasjordan]

Well, I've been in the process of moving back to Louisiana from Florida.  Just got my home computer back up and running today.

We got about 2" of snow in western Louisiana about 2 weeks ago, and 8" came down about 30 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.

That's only the second time it has snowed here since we moved here in 1992, although we have gotten flurries that didn't stick a couple of other times.

I remember about 2 feet of snow in Tacoma in the early 1980's.  Totally shut the place down, except for me.  I had the office to my self for about 3 days, before anybody else felt brave enough to venture outside.  Driving in snow never bothered me, but I did learn to hate Tacoma's black ice on the roads.  That was treacherous.

[Hawk]

People in the Northern states can't understand why cities shut down here in Georgia when it snows. What they don't realize is; when it snows down here, 99% of the time the roads are still above freezing when it starts snowing, melting the snow. Then the temperature drops, freezing the melted snow, causing the black ice. Then it will snow on top of that.

Driving on snow isn't that big of a deal, with a little common sense, but I don't know anyone that can affectively drive on ice.

[Gwizz]

We got a bit of snow last evening.  But, it is raining now.  The passes are closed again.

The Seattle Mayor is proposing the use of chemical and salt for the next big snow and ice storm. 

With a major shortage of snow plows, he has purposed putting snow plows on the contracted privately owned garbage trucks.  These Trucks when fully loaded with garbage, could plow their next route before dumping their load of garbage and return to pick up more garbage and then plow another route.

The cars and buses could then use these plowed routes.  Sounds like a good plan.

[Gwizz]

Well Seattle is almost isolated.  You can still fly to Seattle with extra flights scheduled for a few days. 

I guess you could also come in your own boat.

Trains have stopped.

All highway passes are closed as too dangerous with deep wet snow.

Mud slides and high water closed the routes South and North.

With temperatures now dropping, things should be getting back to normal in a day or two.

The creek got a bit deeper last night; But with the heavy rain having passed us by, the level should drop today.

For living next to a creek, The positives still out weight the negatives.  The grand kids also love it when they visit.

[Gwizz]

The Local commuter trains South of Seattle will run today to and from Tacoma.  But, further South the RR tracks to Portland are still under water.  This problem has been happening since the 30s.  maybe they will fix it this time.  The long distance Buses are still mostly waiting for the roads to clear.  Passengers are sleeping in the Bus terminals. at motels or at Red cross centers.   Long distance mail is getting in and out by air. But local mail is hit and miss depending upon what roads are closed.   A couple of highway passes have now opened.  Many trucks are still lined up along the freeways.  I heard the RR snow plow go by yesterday heading East over the mountains.  So container trains may be running soon.

I expect my creek to start dropping today.  It actually rose yesterday during a time when it wasn't raining.  While we did place sand bags, they were not really needed.

It will be a bit over an hour before the sun wakes up the sky so we can see how we faired last night.

Our problems, compared to others in the world, are small;  But big compared to what is normal for us.

[thomasjordan]

Gwizz:

I do emergency management training exercises for a living.  Your problems are not small.  I'm sure the Washington State, King County, Pierce County (and other) EOCs are tearing their hair out over what has been happening the past several weeks.

Rob

[Gwizz]

Hi Rob,

Your are right.  It is a big problem.

But personally the problems were not that big for me.  I enjoy the snow and the rain;  The air is always so clean after a hard rain. A cold snow will mean less bugs this coming summer.  but then, being retired, I can now stay home.  We did venture out some.  I enjoyed testing the roads with its' ice and snow. 

I was thinking of the Gulf Coast.  Of the earthquake in China, etc. Where people die.

I don't think we had even one death. 

Having experienced flooding when I first moved here and snow as high as a house in Spokane and elsewhere, I was prepared with the 3 Fs: with firewood, food and fuel for the generator, plus a small dam in the back, a levy along the side of the house and a cement wall from the levy along the creek past my pond.

Now the flooding South of Tacoma & the Mud slides that closed down roads, freeways and the Railroad were a huge problem for many people. The people that bought new homes in the flood plain below the volcano, I'm sure, are wondering why houses were even allowed there.  Some people just seem to lack common sense or the talent to even think about what could be ahead of them.   Of course greed, etc. were also players.

[Gwizz]

Well Heck. A couple slid on the mud off of a freeway into flood waters and drowned. 

Otherwise,  Driving has become more normal.