The ORIGINAL 1000+ Posts Club

[saucycobblers]

Here in South West UK it's a gloriously crisp, sunny winters day - just perfect for walking in the hills and mountains.

As you can probably tell I'm chomping at the bit to get outa this damn office!!

[southendmd]

Happy Friendship Day, Everyone!

[Jeff Wrangler]

More snow and ice on the ground down here than I expected.  

Very few folks made it into work this morning, but I phoned our Building Status Line right after 7 a.m., and the building was open, so here I am.  

I am beginning to think, however, that I need to start staying home on days like this. Why, you ask? Because I'm beginning to think I'm too stupid to walk on snow and ice.  

I mean, I look out of the bus window, and I see people in ordinary leather-soled dress shoes striding along on a couple of inches of snow and ice as if it were a sunny, dry day in June. What's up with that, hunh?   Me, in motorcycle boots? Every step I take one foot slides one way, the other foot slides the other way, and I'm lucky I don't break my neck.  

[David]

Thursdays Top Ten List

injest  9582
Lucise  6199
Garry_LH  5021
MaineWriter  4727
Front-Ranger  4499
louisev  3338
DavidinHartford  3222
Ellemeno  2953
David925  2781
Fran  2698

[David]

What a mess!

   The drive to work yesterday was scary!    My usual 30 minute drive took an hour.   The highway was snow covered and visability was terrible.   I just stayed behind a large tractor trailer and followed his tire tracks doing 30-35 mph at best.

The snow had changed over to sleet and with the the wind it pelted my face as I crossed the employee parking lot at the Terminal.     Once inside I noticed all the monitors that listed Arrivals and Departures said CANCELLED.   There were long lines at the ticket counters as travellers tried to rebook their flights.     We actually had little to do.   Since nobody was flying, there were no passengers or baggage to screen.   I was at the SoutWest Airlines baggage drop and we checked 13 bags all shift.   And none of those made it onto a plane.

Thirteen had called in sick which means they didn't want to drive in the snow.   By noon the Supervisors were going around asking who wanted to use leave time and go home early.    Many did.    I was with my boy Nicholas and we decided to stay for the duration.   Easy money after all.    We eventually ordered out for a pizza and some grinders (aka: Subs, hoagies).   We were surprized anyone was delivering in this storm let alone to the Airport Terminal.

Eventually the masses of humanity left to go find hotels.  Quite a few people got stuck at the Airport as the hotels filled quickly.   By 6pm the Airport was virtually empty.    Most of the ticket counters had closed.   A few lost passengers walked around looking for comfortable chairs to sleep on.      There was nothing much we could do except wait for 8 PM so we could go to our cars and dig them out for the slippery drive home.

As I left there was a voicemail message on my Mobile.    My neighbor buddy had called.  "I shovelled your driveway and sidewalks.  Happy Valentines day!"

That was the Best V-day present I could have received!

[MaineWriter]

Glad to hear you made it home safe and sound, David!

9.9 degrees this morning and clear today. Hannah wrote a snow day protocol (you can read it over on the creative writer's corner...please leave feedback!). She followed it to the letter but unfortunately, schools are open today. Tony is out shoveling the driveway and I am getting myself ready for the morning commute.

More later.

L

[opinionista]

I've been abstaining from making reports about Madrid's weather here because some of you have it so bad and I didn't want to make you feel bad. But oh well, I'm making an exception today. It's 52º at this moment, and it is expected to be 70º tomorrow! In February! Where did the winter go? It's supposed to be cold. I wonder if this is related to global warming.

[saucycobblers]

I've been abstaining from making reports about Madrid's weather here because some of you have it so bad and I didn't want to make you feel bad. But oh well, I'm making an exception today. It's 52º at this moment, and it is expected to be 70º tomorrow! In February! Where did the winter go? It's supposed to be cold. I wonder if this is related to global warming.

I know what you mean. One of the nice things about living in the UK is the variety of weather conditions we get here and when I was a kid the seasons were very distinct from each other. We had a dusting of snow that lasted about 5 minutes earlier in the week, but about 30 years ago I remember us getting huge snow drifts at this time of year every year, and really hot summers, and beautiful crisp springs, and balmy autumns... not so now - they all merge seamlessly into each other and it's hard to distinguish one from the other...

[Meryl]

David, it sounds like you had a kind of mini-vacation yesterday. 

I feel sorry for the travellers, though.  Here in NY several planeloads of people were stranded on the tarmac for up to 11 hours because of backups caused by the freezing conditions.  Not fun. 

I know what you mean. One of the nice things about living in the UK is the variety of weather conditions we get here and when I was a kid the seasons were very distinct from each other. We had a dusting of snow that lasted about 5 minutes earlier in the week, but about 30 years ago I remember us getting huge snow drifts at this time of year every year, and really hot summers, and beautiful crisp springs, and balmy autumns... not so now - they all merge seamlessly into each other and it's hard to distinguish one from the other...

Same here, Nicky.  Growing up in Pennsylvania, we had those nice, clearly delineated seasons, but now it's kind of blah.  I was just thinking, even though it's great to be living in the age of technology with modern conveniences and more leisure time, we've paid a high price.  Not one of us was alive before the air of Planet Earth started to be polluted by industrial and auto emissions.  We will never know the purity and clarity of air and visibility that our forebears did, and that stuff is going to be in the atmosphere for centuries to come. 

On a happier note, NY looks great with its coating of snow! 

Congrats to Garry on passing 5,000! 

[David]

Fridays Top Ten List!

injest  9604
Lucise  6213
Garry_LH  5027
MaineWriter  4741
Front-Ranger  4518
louisev  3340
DavidinHartford  3225
Ellemeno  2953
David  2803
Fran  2713