Off-Topic Forum

Funny to read this thread.

In Ontario (as in most provinces) the teachers still have to be at school even if the buses are cancelled because there are many walk to school students.  As well, many parents will drive the kids in because they both work (school = free day care).  Only if the school is closed do the teachers get a day off. This is a rarity.

Atlanta surpassed Chicago as the busiest airport many years ago (early 90s?).  Problem in places as far south as Atlanta is that they do not have de-icing capabilities to handle the aircraft wishing to depart in this kind of weather.  Ever since a crash in Dryden,Ontario due to attempting to take off without being de-iced, the FAA (those who regulate air traffic) will not let any aircraft take off if there is even a slight bit of snow or ice on the aircraft control edges i.e. wings.  De-icingis a big operation in many northern airports but in the south, de-icing is usually done by the big yellow globe inthe sky.  I used to fly CC130s; the four props did a fine job in blowing off loose snow but when the regulation was put in place, we had to de-ice even for loose snow.

Spaz, concrete adn pavement get below 32F surface temperature before the bare ground / grass does.  That is why the picture would look this way.  Remember the signs on the road - Bridge freezes before the road.

Yesterday, I cleaned my driveway.  If I had a picture of it, I would post it - a 6' wide snowblower on the back of my tractor.  Done in a breeze.  I am surprised Spaz had a shovel to clear his snow as he descrribed.

If any of my southern friends have to travel today, drive safely.  It is no fun being on the roads in these conditions south or north of the border.

Why are you surprised I had a shovel? In the south, we do our own gardening so I have plenty of different shovels. Not a snow shovel though. Some people on other sites suggested a snow shovel for the driveway. I guess they don't know that I live out in the country. Shoveling the driveway is pointless until the road is somewhat clear. I went to work today and still didn't shovel the driveway. I just cleared a starting point in front of my car with my boots. Once I get going, I can make it to the road. My road got scraped but it still sucks. So do certain sections of the next road. It's 7 miles before I get to a road that's well-maintained in winter weather. Once I get to that road, it's pretty good traveling after that. I didn't have any problems on the roads tonight. I do have to go about 20-30 mph slower than normal for the first and last seven miles though.

I just saw a video of my local TV station's Chief Meteorologist clearing his driveway with a card table! He said it was much faster than the snow shovel. He used the table to push the snow down the concrete driveway and then the shovel to remove the piles. He said it took only 15 minutes.

That reminds me... my driveway is gravel, not concrete or asphalt. Almost everyone on my block has a gravel driveway, even the ones that live way off the road.

Same as me - 600' of gravel driveway with a 90 degree bend in it.  But only a mile to the first better maintained road though it is usually snow covered.  Yes, I was referring to a snow shovel. Not sure if a card table would work on some of the heavy snows we get.

My driveway isn't that long at all. My driveway is shaped like an H. One driveway leads to the carport attached to the house and one driveway leads to the detached garage. There is a connector in the middle and that's where I park. That way I never have to back in or out of the driveways. In the winter, I point my car to the southwest so the sun heats up my car in the afternoon and in the summer I point the opposite way so the afternoon sun doesn't make my steering wheel too hot to touch. I do have to immediately make a 90 degree turn as soon as I put the car in gear, but then it's only about 35 feet to the road. The driveways (and entire front yard) still have several inches of snow, but the tire tracks are easy to stay in to get out to the road.

I want to post another photo like the original one to show what it looks like now. All the snow on top of the bk goal and playground is gone. All the snow in the trees is gone. Where the trees are is near the top of a hill and all the snow up there is gone too. You can't tell from this photo, but there is a (usually dry) creek b/t the playground and the hill in the background. It's actually the spillway for my pond to the right of the photo connecting to my neighbors lake to the left side. If you notice the pole on the far-right, it is in the spillway and stands about 4.5 feet from the bottom. It's a marker for underground drainage pipes so I can find them in times of heavy rain or snowmelt in case they clog. If you make a line straight across the picture with the top of that pipe, everything above that line is mostly bare ground already. Everything below that line still has many inches of snow on the ground, except the patio that I mostly cleared.

Snow is almost gone here AGAIN >( ............. Thursday got to +8C and yesterday +5C. The weirdest winter in a few years here. Suppose to drop to -20C again by midweek. No wonder everyone is getting the flu up here. I live 7 miles (yes I am a dual idiot when it comes to measurements) 6 of those are glorious pavement, 1 is oil cold roll and the just my driveway is gravel(ish) and is a S shape as you may have seen from the roof picture I posted back in November.

As for dual everything here in LLoydminster, it does get quite whacky. Two court houses, two different drinking ages and driving ages, two sets of liquor stores, only one police detachment though (which causes greif as it is funded by Alberta only) and only one school division (which is funded by Saskatchewan only)but like I said before independently run bussing services yet only one hospital (dually funded) ...... I could go on.

Here is the new pic from exactly 3 days after the original photo was taken. Bye-bye snow (well, lots of it).

Looks like a beauty of a backyard spaz! So is it kids or grandkids? I can not recall. I'd have to say its kids just by the way you have talked in the past.

The basketball goal is mine, but the playground was mostly for my niece and nephew. They lived here for a couple of years after my sister left active duty in the US Navy. She was taking college classes but also was enlisted in the Reserves at the time. It just helped everyone with finances and childcare that she lived here during that time instead of living 4 hours away. The playground was built so that the kids had more to do in the backyard than that plastic castle/slide thing and the outdoor toys that are now at their house. I have no kids of my own, but who really needs them when your sister has one of each and lots of family friends have kids too. That playground sees a lot of action, even without ANY children living here now. Oh, and the "tower" has a "rock-climbing wall" on the other side (where the boards are closer together). The left side of the back in the photo is a ladder but the other side is straight up with hand and foot holds. Over the summer, the actual swings got replaced b/c the chains on the old ones were rusting and there is some new sand in the sandbox (the ground-level of the tower). You can't tell from the picture but there are "monkey-bars" across the bottom of the floor of the tower above the sandbox. I sure wish I had something like that set-up when I was a kid!

Thanks for the comment on the backyard, but you only see a small portion of it in this photo! There is much more land on either side of the photo AND that's just what's inside the fence. I have a fenced-in vegetable garden (inside the main fence) to the left side of the photo. On the right side is mostly open area. The fenced portion of the backyard is about an acre. If you stand on the playground tower, you can see the neighbor's lake to the left of the picture and my pond to the right of the picture. Between the pond and the road is a large open area. There's a horseshoe pit there but not much else. Makes for a great area for throwing a ball or frisbee! There was a volleyball/badminton net there too but the damn geese kept messing with it whenever they came in to nest on the small island in the pond (same reason I had to move the garden to the backyard). They just didn't like that net being there! I don't know what they want me to put there b/c I thought the Canadian geese came down here to get away from ice sports!!!