Tag Archives: snow

365 Day Photo Challenge 42/365 “The S Word”

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

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The S word is in the forecast again and I’m not happy about it.  I’m so over winter and I’m ready for spring time.  This weekend was absolutely beautiful.  With highs in the lower 60’s the parks were full of people enjoying the sunshine.  Today was in the high 50’s but tomorrow it will start getting cold again and then by Sunday morning it will be back in the teens. To beat all, next Tuesday they have snow back in the forecast.  Right now it’s too far away for them to make an accurate account as to how much snow we get.  As it stands now the city will shut down for just a dusting.

“Life Goes On”

365 Day Photo Challenge 28/365 “Day of Snowmageddon”

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

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I laugh at the title.  It was bad but wasn’t that bad.  It started snowing around 9:30 am that morning and when it hit the roadways it immediately turned to ice. Local school districts in the area started closing and the mass exodus commenced.  This cause major traffic jams with the roadways began to ice over it meant that many motorists decided to leave their vehicles in the middle of the streets.  Many of the people that left early to go get their kids from school soon returned because they couldn’t make it to the main road.  Over 1500 people were stranded at our place of business that night and nearly 100 the following night as well.

They let me go to attempt to get home at 4:30 pm.  With all my medications at home along with my CPAP I had to at least make an attempt at it. It normally takes 45 minutes to make the trip but on this night it took a little longer.  It alone took me 45 minutes to get to the main road and another 30 minutes to get to the interstate.  Three hours later I made it as far as I could with the roads conditions deteriorating.  The temps had dropped down to 19 degrees before I made it to the bottom of this long hill.  This is where I had to park my truck and hike the remaining three miles to get home.  All in all it only took me nearly four hours to make the trek home.  I was one of the lucky ones.  There were many that had to stay in their vehicles for over 24 hours.

From now on, if there is a mention of snow in the forecast, I will stay in the warmth of my home.  I do not ever want to go through that again.

Life Goes On!!

365 Day Photo Challenge 27/365 “Snow Day”

27 Tuesday Jan 2015

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With all this snow talk up north I decided I’d post a picture of the snow we got last year.  In fact it was a year ago this week when we got snowed in.  I think we had about an inch of ice with about four inches of snow.  Shut the city down for about 48 hours.  This was nothing compared to the winter storm of ’93 when we had 18 inches of snow. We were snowed in for over a week.  We lost power for five days and had to heat and cook our food via a fireplace.  In fact, we even had to sleep in the den next to the fireplace because we had a waterbed at the time.  No power means a very cold waterbed.  We emptied our refrigerator and put all of our perishables outside on the deck.  We simply dug a hole in the snow, put everything in it and covered it up.  Didn’t lose a thing.

I like snow but I like it for one day and the next it’s gone.  It makes for some pretty pictures, don’t you think?

365 Day Challenge Day Sixteen “Redneck Ski Slope”

16 Friday Jan 2015

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That’s what my co workers call it anyway.  Cloudmont is located in Mentone, Alabama.  It’s nearly 2 hours from where I live.  Last year I took my two daughters and one of their girl friends there for an afternoon of skiing.  It’s all man made and it’s all ice.  They call it “red neck” because nearly everyone there skiing was wearing camouflage.  A deer hunters paradise.

Personally, I’ve never skied and I’ve never really cared too.  I used to roller skate and I’ve went ice skating once but I stayed on my butt the whole night.  Snow skiing to me is just asking for trouble.  I’ve always said that the good Lord was gracious enough to give me a lot of things and one thing He gave me was common sense. As Mike Rowe is fond of saying in dangerous situations, “It’s ill advised my friend”.

Both my daughters and their friend all learned how to ski that day and in fact went down the bunny slope.  I was a proud dad to see them do this.  My son, being in the Boy Scouts, got a chance a few years back to go to Cloudmont and not only learned to ski but got his Snow Sports Merit Badge.

365 Day Photo Challenge Day Fifteen “Longing for Warmer Days”

15 Thursday Jan 2015

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I’m so ready for some warmer weather.  Today was another cold and miserable day.  Granted, I know some of you are dealing with much colder temperatures but it just seems like the cold will not go away.  We’re supposed to see some warmer temps this weekend and I’m so ready for it.  There were even reports of snow and ice just north of where I live.  It’s funny how we are so not prepared for any depth of snow here in Alabama.  They got a dusting of snow in Huntsville today and our satellite office there sent everyone home.  It’s funny I know but we are not prepared to deal with it.  All we have are sand trucks that put sand on the bridges to help with traction but the ice and snow is still there.  Some people here are so hard headed that they think they can drive in this mess that all the do is stall the traffic with their wrecked vehicles.  I just have to laugh at their stupidity.

Complete Shut Down

13 Thursday Feb 2014

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Once again snow has completely shut down one of the largest cities in Alabama, I got just over four inches of snow here while others north and east of us got upwards around seven plus inches.  Cities south of me only got anywhere from a dusting to one inch.  

It’s funny though that one inch of snow can shut this place down.  As I’ve stated in an earlier post, we are just now equipped to handle it.  Other cities north of us has salt trucks that go out and prep the roads before the snow starts falling.  We have sand trucks.  Two different things.  Salt helps to melt the snow and sand only helps get traction and usually makes for a messy vehicle after the snow is gone.  

Birmingham doesn’t see much snow.  I’m 50 years old and the most I’ve ever seen is 18 inches in March of 1993 and the city was shut down for over a week.  Temps stayed below freezing for most of the week and the snow never melted.  We lost power for the week and had no emergency power.  We do now.  We had to heat and cook our food out of our fireplace.  We took all of our perishables and put them on the deck and covered it up with snow so that we wouldn’t loose most of our food.  All of our meet and such we put in the bath tub and covered everything with snow.  That worked pretty well. We even had a water bed at the time.  Do you know what happens when you have no power on a water bed?  It get’s so cold you can’t sleep on it.  Luckily, we had a fold out couch that my wife and I slept on.  Did I mention she was GREAT with child?  I was worried the whole time we were stuck in our house thinking that she was going to go into labor.  Thank the good Lord above she didn’t.

Temps should warm up quickly tomorrow morning and the snow should start to melt early on. Either I go to my doctor appointment or I end up going to work tomorrow.  My guess is my appointment will be postponed and work will open around 10 am in the morning.  Either way I won’t be able to stay home and enjoy the snow with my girls.  I can’t really afford to take more time until I find out what is going on with my blood work.

Take care everyone and have a blessed day.

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The South and Snow Do Not Mix

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

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The South and Snow Do Not Mix

My dad’s truck after he went off the road this morning.

The Meteorologist down here in the south do not know how to predict snow nor the amount that we may get. For the last two days they have been predicting that we will only get a dusting in our area, more to our south. They were wrong. We got over two inches and it all turned to ice very quickly.

Here in Birmingham, if we do get a dusting of snow, the city shuts down. We can’t handle snow or ice. We don’t know how to drive in it unlike the northern part of the United States. They see snow all the time but not us. We get measurable amounts about every ten years.
Today was absolutely horrid. It started about 10 am and by 10:30 am the roads were already icing up. By 11 am the roads were so bad that people were abandoning their cars and walking back to their jobs or preparing for a very long drive home. People who only live minutes away took hours to get home. Normally it only takes me an hour to get home and tonight it took over three hours. Wrecks everywhere.

The company I work for still has over 1100 people still there and they will still be there tomorrow. All roads are closed and may not open back up tomorrow. It’s only supposed to get up to 29 degrees f for the high tomorrow.

I got within 7 miles from my home before I had to park my truck and start hiking in. I had my cold weather gear so I wasn’t too worried. I had only hike about a mile when a car approached me and offered a ride. I rode with him nearly to my house when he had to park. I started walking again when this dune buggy contraption stopped and offered me a ride. No windshield mind you but what the hell, I didn’t want to walk so I hopped in. My wife and kids were waiting when I was dropped off. Now I’ve got to get my truck home sometime tomorrow but not sure how.

BTW, my dad is ok. He only had a few stitches put in his head but his truck is totaled. He is currently stuck at the hospital and will have to wait until we find suitable transportation to get him home. He’s warm and being taken care of so he’s good.

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Ski School

25 Saturday Jan 2014

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Ski School

Had a great time today spending it with my daughters and their friend. We went to a ski resort here in Alabama. Sounds funny but it’s true. We do have a ski resort here in the deep south. It’s all man made but it’s snow. It has to be below 28 degrees f at night and the humidity has to be below 30 percent before they can make the stuff and the way the weather has been lately they haven’t had any trouble making it.

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